PASSENGER TURTLE. 179 



Georgia and Carolina, these districts being the near- 

 est in which they could possibly have procured a 

 supply of that kind of food/' The distance between 

 these points is stated to be between three and four 

 hundred miles ; and, as the decomposition of their 

 food is completely effected in twelve hours, this 

 space must have been travelled within the short pe- 

 riod of five or six hours. 



The account of their roosting and breeding places 

 is too curious to be omitted ; we therefore make no 

 apology for quoting at length Wilson's description 

 contained in the American Ornithology. " The 

 roosting-places are always in the woods, and some- 

 times occupy a large extent of forest. When they 

 have frequented one of those places for some time, 

 the appearance it exhibits is surprising. The ground 

 is covered to the depth of several inches with their 

 dung ; all the tender grass and underwood destroyed ; 

 the surface strewed with large limbs of trees, broken 

 down by the weight of the birds collecting one above 

 another ; and the trees themselves, for thousands of 

 acres, killed as completely as if girdled with an axe. 

 The marks of their desolation remain for many years 

 on the spot ; and numerous places could be pointed 

 out, where, for several years after, scarcely a single 

 vegetable made its appearance. When these roosts 

 are first discovered, the inhabitants, from consider- 

 able distances, visit them in the night, with guns, 

 clubs, long poles, pots of sulphur, and various other 

 engines of destruction. In a few hours they fill many 



