THE PASSENGER PIGEON—KALM AND AUDUBON. 409 
been the case for some years previously; yet it was not one of the 
particular or more unusual ones); but all persons who had observed 
these happenings and lived long enough to remember several of 
them recited several incidents connected therewith. Some had even 
made short notes of various details, of which I will cite the following: 
In the spring of 1740, on the Lith, 12th, 15th, 16th, 17th, isth, 
and 22d of March (old style), but more ee on the 11th, fant 
came from the north an incredible multitude of these pigeons to 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Their’ number, while in flight, 
extended 3 or 4 English miles in length, and more than 1 such mile 
in breadth, and they flew so closely together that the sky and the 
sun were piacuned by them, the sda becoming sensibly dimin- 
ished by their shadow. 
The big as well as the little trees in the woods, sometimes covering 
a distance of 7 English miles, became so filled with them that hardly 
a twig or a branch could be seen which they did not cover; on the 
thicker branches they had piled themselves up on one another’s backs, 
quite about a yard high. 
When they alighted on the trees their weight was so heavy that 
not only big limbs and branches of the size of a man’s thigh were 
broken straight off, but less firmly rooted trees broke down completely 
under the load. 
The ground below the trees where they had spent the night was 
entirely covered with their dung, which lay in great heaps. 
As soon as they had devoured the acorns and other seeds which 
served them as food and which generally lasted only for a day, they 
moved away to another place. 
The Swedes and others not only killed a great number with shot- 
guns, but they also slew a great quantity with sticks, without any 
particular difficulty; especially at night they could have dispatched 
as many as their strength would have enabled them to accomplish, 
as the pigeons then made such a noise in the trees that they could 
not hear whether anything dangerous to them was going on, or 
whether there were people about. Several of the old men assured 
me that in the darkness they did not dare to walk beneath the trees 
where the prgeons were, because all through the night, owing to their 
numbers and corresponding weight, one thick and heavy branch after 
another broke asunder and fell down, and this could easily have 
injured a human being that had ventured below. 
About a week or a little later subsequent to the disappearance of 
this enormous multitude of pigeons from Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey, a sea captain by the name of Amies, who had just arrived at 
Philadelphia, and after him several other seafaring men, stated that 
they had found localities out at sea where the water, to an extent of 
over 3 French miles, was entirely covered by dead pigeons of this 
