372 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



of trees, the Wild Pigeon is remarkable for its ease and grace. It walks on 

 the ground and also on the limbs of trees with an easy, graceful motion, 

 frequently jerking its tail and moving its neck backward and forward. 



Mr. Audubon states that in Kentucky he has repeatedly visited one of 

 the remarkable roosting-places to which these birds resort at night. This 

 one was on the banks of Green Eiver, and to this place tlie birds came every 

 night at sunset, arriving from all directions, some of them from the dis- 

 tance of several hundred miles, as was conjectured from certain observations. 

 This roost was in a portion of. the forest where the trees were of great mag- 

 nitude. It was more than forty miles in length, and averaged three in 

 breadth. It had been occupied as a roost about a fortnight when he visited 

 it. Their dung was several inches deep on the ground, covering the whole 

 extent of the roosting-place. Many trees, two feet in diameter, had beeu 

 broken down by their weight, as well as many branches of the largest and 

 tallest trees. The forest seemed as if it had been swept by a tornado. 

 Everything gave evidence that the number of birds resorting to that part 

 of the forest must be immense. A large number of persons collected before 

 sunset to destroy them, provided with torches of pine-knots, and armed 

 with long poles and guns. The Pigeons began to collect after sunset, 

 their approach preceded, even when they were at a distance, by a noise 

 like that of a hard gale at sea sounding in the rigging of a vessel. As 

 the birds passed over him, they created a strong current of air. The 

 birds arrived by thousands, fires were lighted, and the work of destruc- 

 tion commenced. Many were knocked down by the pole-men. In many 

 cases they collected in such solid masses on the branches that several of 

 their perches gave way and fell to the ground, in this way destroying hun- 

 dreds of the birds beneath them. It was a scene of great confusion and 

 continued until past midnight, the Pigeons still continuing to arrive. The 

 sound made by the birds at the roost could be heard at the distance of three 

 miles. As day approached, the noise in some measure subsided ; and long 

 before objects were distinguishable the Pigeons began to move off, and before 

 daylight all that were able to fly had disappeared. Tlie dead and wounded 

 birds were then collected and piled into heaps by those who had assembled 

 for the purpose. 



Though for the most part living, moving, and feeding together in large 

 companies, the Wild Pigeon mates in pairs for purposes of breeding. They 

 have several broods in the season, and commence nesting very early in 

 the spring, the time being considerably affected by the amount of food. 

 In the spring of 1849 an immense number of these birds collected on Fays- 

 ton Mountain, near Montpelier, Vt., although at the time of their coming 

 the weather was very cold and the ground covered with snow. There 

 they seemed to find a great abundance of food, berries of the mountain-ash 

 and such other fruit as they could procure, and there they remained, breed- 

 ing in great numbers, until late in the summer. They were still collected in 



