II THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 31 



American naturalist, Alexander "Wilson, will be read with 

 interest : — 



" Not far from Shelby ville, in the State of Kentucky, 

 about five years ago, there was one of these breeding- places, 

 which stretched through the Avoods in nearly a north and 

 south direction, was several miles in breadth, and was said to 

 be upwards of 40 miles in extent. In this tract almost 

 every tree was furnished with nests wherever the branches 

 could accommodate them. The pigeons made their first 

 appearance there about the 10th of April, and left it 

 altogether with their young before the 25th of May. As 

 soon as the young were fully grown and before they left the 

 nests, numerous parties of the inhabitants from all parts of 

 the adjacent country came with waggons, axes, beds, cooking 

 utensils, many of them accompanied by the greater part of 

 their families, and encamped for several days at this immense 

 nursery. Several of them informed me that the noise was 

 so great as to terrify their horses, and that it was difficult for 

 one person to hear another Avithout bawling in his ear. The 

 ground was strewed with broken limbs of trees, eggs, and 

 young squab pigeons, which had been j^recipitated from above, 

 and on which herds of hogs were fattening. Hawks, buzzards, 

 and eagles were sailing about in great numbers, and seizing 

 the squabs from the nests at pleasure ; while, from 20 feet 

 upwards to the top of the trees, the view through the woods 

 presented a perpetual tumult of crowding and fluttering 

 multitudes of pigeons, their wdngs roaring like thunder, 

 mingled with the frequent crash of falling timber ; for now 

 the axemen were at work cutting down those trees that seemed 

 most crowded with nests, and contrived to fell them in such 

 a manner, that in their descent they might bring down several 

 others ; by which means the falling of one large tree some- 

 times produced 200 squabs little inferior in size to the old 

 birds, and almost one heap of fat. On some single trees 

 upwards of a hundred nests were found, each containing one 

 squab only ; a circumstance in the history of the bird not 

 generally known to naturalists.^ It was dangerous to walk 



^ Later observers liave proved that two eggs are laid and usually two 

 young produced, but it may be that in most cases only one of these comes to 

 maturity. 



