312 June 174.9. 



bitants not knowing where they come from. 

 They have their nefts in the trees here ; 

 and almoft all the night make a great noife 

 and cooing in the trees, where they rooft. 

 The Frenchmen fhot a great number of them, 

 and gave us fome, in which we found a 

 great quantity of the feeds of the elm, 

 which evidently demonftrated the care of 

 Providence in fupplying them with food ; 

 for in May the feeds of the red maple, which 

 abounds here, are ripe, and drop from the 

 trees, and are eaten by the pigeons during 

 that time : afterwards, the feeds of the elm 

 ripen, which then become their food, till 

 other feeds ripen for them. Their flefh 

 is the moft palatable of any bird's flefh I 

 ever tafted, 



ALMOST every night, we heard fome 

 trees crack and fall, whilft we lay here in 

 the wood, though the air wasfo calm that not 

 a leaf ftirred. The reafon of this breaking 

 I am totally unacquainted with, Perhaps 

 the dew loofens the roots of trees at night 5 

 or, perhaps there arc too many branches 

 on one fide of the tree. It may be> that 

 the above-mentioned wild pigeons fettle in 

 fuch quantities on one tree as to weigh it 

 down ; or perhaps the tree begins to bend 

 more and more to one fide, from its center 

 of gravity, making the weight always greater 



