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 11th, 12th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 

 and 22d of March (old style), but more especially on the 11th, there 

 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 obscured by them, the daylight 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 then 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 pigeons 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 



