C. If. Merriam Birds of Connecticut. 95 



to this luxuriancy of animal life ; diminished the number of these 

 birds, and drove them further to the northward."* 



Two centuries after Morton's description was written, Nuttall 

 remarks : " To talk of hundreds of millions of individuals of the same 

 species habitually associated in feeding, roosting, and breeding, with- 

 out any regard to climate or season as an operating cause in these 

 gregarious movements, would at first appear to be wholly incredible. 



The approach of the mighty feathered army with a loud 



rushing roar, and a stirring breeze, attended by a sudden darkness, 

 might be mistaken for a fearful tornado about to overwhelm the face 

 of nature. For several hours together the vast host, extending some 

 miles in breadth, still continues to pass in flocks without diminution. 

 The whole air is filled with them ; 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 concentrating mass, 

 and heaving in undulating and glittering sweeps towards the earth, 

 at length again proceed in lofty meanders like the rushing of a 

 mighty animated river." " Alighting, they industriously search 

 through the withered leaves for their favorite mast [chiefly beech 

 nuts and acorns] ; those behind are continually rising and passing 

 forward in front in such quick succession, that the whole flock, still 

 circling over the ground, seems yet on the wing. As the sun begins 

 to decline they depart in a body for the general 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 several inches. 

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

 ground strewed with many 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."! Wilson tells us that their 

 breeding places are still more extensive than the roosts, mentioning 

 one in Kentucky " which stretched through the woods in nearly a 

 north and south direction ; was several miles in breadth, and was 

 said to be upwards of forty miles in extent !" " On some single trees 



* The Natural and Civil History of Vermont, p. 114, 1794. 

 f Nuttall's Manual of Ornithology, vol. i, pp. 631-2, 1832. 



