VOl ':um Vni ] Kalm, Wild Pigeons in North America. 57 



The big as well as the little trees in the woods, sometimes cover- 

 ing 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 com- 

 pletely 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 

 shotguns, 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 sea-faring 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 species. It was conjectured that the Pigeons, whether 

 owing to a storm, mist, or snowfall, had been carried away to the 

 sea, and then on account of the darkness of the following night or 

 from fatigue, had alighted on the water and in that place and man- 

 ner met their fate. It is said that from that date no such tre- 



