THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 95 



seen. Not a cooing of a pigeon could be heard. No 

 life, no sound savoring of life, save the rustling of a 

 leaf turned by a chipmunk seeking an early breakfast, 

 o: the feeble chirp of an awakening bird in the border 

 of the wood. 



Soon from the west there came a sound like that 

 of an approaching tempest, or the roar of a distant 

 cataract ; swish ! The pigeons had come. Streaming 

 through the forest with such speed that one could 

 catch a sight of only a glint of flapping wings. 



Flock followed flock, sitting in the tops of the trees 

 or lighting on the ground, and moving forward still, 

 as if impelled by the momentum gained in their flight. 

 Hopping, tumbling, flitting over one another, in the 

 eagerness of each one to keep in the front rank. 



Alfter a long flight, the birds were hungry and the 

 chance of the hindmost finding many nuts after the 

 ground had been passed over was very small. 



The twittering peculiar to the pigeon when a flock 

 was lighting on the ground to feed, could be heard in 

 every direction, showing that the scramble for nuts 

 was going on over a large extent of forest where beech 

 trees abounded. 



When the pigeons came into that forest which was 

 miles in extent, there must have been thousands of 

 bushels of nuts scattered upon the ground. After they 

 had once finished feeding, there could not have been 

 a possibiHty of many being left. Half a pint of beech- 

 nuts has been found in a pigeon's crop, and there were 

 millions of them! 



