296 THE PASSENGER PIGEON. 



with dismay and detestation, knowing that the produce 

 of his labour and industry is in jeopardy, when visited 

 by such a voracious multitude of pilferers, who, like the 

 locusts of Egypt, desolate whole tracts of country by 

 their unsparing ravages. 



TABLE XVII. (See page 17.) 

 ORDER 4. GALLINACEOUS, (or Poultry tribe.} 



WE now come to one of the most useful divisions of 

 birds, forming in their domesticated state no inconsider- 

 able source of profit to those who rear them for the pur- 

 pose of sale. In the tables of classification, the Order 

 comprises three tribes: 1st, Pigeons; 2nd, Fowls, or 

 common poultry; and 3rd, the short- winged families of 

 Ostriches, Cassowaries, &c., which by others have been 

 classed amongst the Waders, in consequence of their 

 length of legs. 



In this country, where Pigeons are, generally speak- 

 ing, a domestic bird, few persons have an idea of their 

 countless increase and abundance, when left to them- 

 selves, roaming over wide tracts, and following, almost 

 without interruption, their natural habits. Even in our 

 dove-cotes, however, their increase is often prodigious ; it 

 having been found, that in the course of four years, 

 nearly 15,000 have been produced from a single pair. 

 Bearing this in mind, the reader will be better prepared 

 to credit the startling accounts of the myriads of these 

 birds, so often witnessed in North America, consisting 

 of a particular species called the Passenger, or Migratory 

 Pigeon, from their regular visits to certain districts, either 

 for the purpose of feeding, or rearing their young. And 

 though tens of thousands are destroyed, chiefly at their 

 roosting-places, the numbers seem rather to increase than 

 diminish. Such multitudes had never before been wit- 

 nessed as in 1829. Flocks extending miles in length, 

 .were, for days together, seen passing over the hills during 



