4 PIGEON TRIBE. 



with birds ; their muting resembles a shower of sleet, and they 

 shut out the light as if it were an eclipse. At the approach of 

 the Hawk their sublime and beautiful aerial evolutions are 

 disturbed like the ruffling squall extending over the placid 

 ocean ; as a thundering torrent they rush together in a concen- 

 trating mass, and heaving in undulating and glittering sweeps 

 towards the earth, at length again proceed in lofty meanders 

 like the nishing of a mighty animated river. 



But the Hawk is not their only enemy : tens of thousands 

 are killed in various ways by all the inhabitants far and near. 

 The evolutions of the feeding Pigeons as they circle round are 

 both beautiful and amusing. Alighting, they industriously 

 search through the withered leaves for their favorite mast ; 

 those behind are continually rising and passing forward in 

 front, in such rapid succession that the whole flock, still cir- 

 cling over the ground, seem yet on the wing. 



As the sun begins to decline, they depart in a body for the 

 genei-al roost, which is often hundreds of miles distant, and is 

 generally chosen in the tallest and thickest forests, almost 

 divested of underwood. Nothing can exceed the waste and 

 desolation of these nocturnal resorts ; the vegetation becomes 

 buried by their excrements to the depth of sev^eral inches. 

 The tall trees for thousands of acres are completely killed, and 

 the ground strewed with massy branches torn down by the 

 clustering weight of the birds which have rested upon them. 

 The whole region for several years presents a continued scene 

 of devastation, as if swept by the resistless blast of a whirlwind. 

 The Honorable T. H. Perkins informs me that he has seen one 

 of these desolated roosting-grounds on the borders of Lake 

 Champlain in New York, and that the forest to a great extent 

 presented a scene of total ruin. 



The breeding-places, as might naturally be expected, differ 

 from the roosts in their greater extent. In 1807, according to 

 Wilson, one of these immense nurseries, near Shelbyville in 

 Kentucky, was several miles in breadth and extended through 

 the woods for upwards of forty miles. After occupying this 

 situation for a succession of seasons they at length abandoned 



