442 Wright, Early Records of the Passenger Pigeon. |_bct. 



appeared, this same year, the Edinburgh edition of Warden's 

 three volume account of the United States. In it, he records l the 

 pigeon as numerous in the Ohio valley, New Hampshire, New York, 

 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, South Carolina, Louisiana, 

 Mississippi, Michigan, Missouri, and Florida. 



In 1819 Faux (Memorable Days in America, etc. London, 1823) 

 also encountered the pigeon at Zainsville, Ohio, and in Tennessee. 

 At the former place, October 14, he 2 " Wandered in the fields shoot- 

 ing pigeons, which is here fine sport; they fly and alight around 

 you on every tree, in immense flocks, and loving to be shot. They 

 are rather smaller than English pigeons, and have a lilac breast; 

 but in other respects are blue, or blue grey. They breed in the 

 woods, and seem to court death by the gun, the sound of which 

 appears to call them together, instead of scaring them away; a 

 fowling-piece well charged with dust shot might bring down a 

 bushel of these willing game at your feet." In the latter instance 

 he describes in detail a pigeon roost, which " is a singular sight in 

 thinly settled states, particularly in Tennessee in the fall of the 

 year, when the roost extends over either a portion of woodland or 

 barrens, from four to six miles in circumference. The screaming 

 noise they make when thus roosting is heard at a distance of six 

 miles; and when the beech-nuts are ripe, they fly 200 miles to 

 dinner, in immense flocks, hiding the sun and darkening the air 

 like a thick passing cloud. They thus travel 400 miles daily. 

 They roost on the high forest trees, which they cover in the same 

 manner as bees in swarms cover a bush, being piled one on the 

 other, from the lowest to the topmost boughs, which so laden, are 

 seen continually bending and falling with their crushing weight, 

 and presenting a scene of confusion and destruction, too strange 

 to describe, and too dangerous to be approached by either man or 

 beast. While the living birds are gone to their distant dinner, 

 it is common for man and animals to gather up or devour the dead, 

 then found in cartloads. When the roost is among the saplings, 

 on which the pigeons alight without breaking them down, only 



1 Warden, D. B. A Statistical, Political, and Historical Account of the United 

 States of North America, etc. Edinburgh, 3 vols., 1819. Vol. I, pp. 382, 496; 

 Vol. II, pp. 38, 351, 411, 528; Vol. Ill, pp. 10, 55, 76, 139, 140, 223. 



2 Early Western Travels, Vol. XI, pp. 174, 175, 236, 237. 



