THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 41 



within the Hue of devastation; the h. ^gs had been pen- 

 ned up in due time, the picking up oi the dead and 

 wounded being left for next morning's employment. 

 "The pigeons were constantly coming and it was 

 past midnight before 1 perceived a decrease in the 

 number of those that arrived. Towards the approach 

 of day the noise in some measure subsided. Long be- 

 fore objects were distinguishable the pigeons began to 

 move off in a direction quite dift'ereut from that in 

 which they had arrived the evening before, and at sun- 

 rise all that were able to fly had d.isappeared. The 

 howling of the wolves now reached our ears, and the 

 foxes, lynxes, cougars, bears, racoons and opossums 

 were seen sneaking off, whilst eagles and hawks of 

 different species, accompanied by a crowd of vultures, 

 came to supplant them and enjoy their share of the 

 spoil." 



At the date specified above one of the parent birds 

 would have been quietly sitting upon the egg in the 

 nest, if there was one only, as some have said, or the 

 eggs, if more than one, as many reliable men aver, hav- 

 ing seen two young birds in most nests at the nesting 

 colonies they have visited, while the squabs remained 

 in the nests ; so 'Mr. Audubon saw^ in the air at one 

 period only about half the adult birds, for at nesting 

 times the sexes were divided, flying for food in flocks 

 of hen-birds at one period of the day and the cocks in 

 other flocks after the hens had returned to take their 

 places on the nests. Mr. Wilson described the nesting 

 he saw, on Kentucky river, a hund-ed and fiftv miles 



