LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



133 



woods, and often extend far across the country. 

 Wilson saw one not far from Shelbyville, in Ken- 

 tucky, which stretched nearly north and south 

 through the woods, extending upwards of forty 

 miles, with a breadth of several miles. In this 

 tract almost every tree bore nests, wherever there 

 was nest-room in the branches. The pigeons 

 made their first appearance about the 10th of 

 April, and those which escaped left the place 

 with their young before the 25th of May. As 

 soon as the young were fully grown, and before 

 they all left the nests, large parties of the inhabi- 

 tants came from all the parts adjacent, with wag- 

 ons, axes, beds, and working utensils, and, with 

 their families, encamped at this immense nursery. 

 Some of tHem told Wilson that the noise was so 

 great that their horses were terrified, and that it 

 was difficult for one person to hear another speak, 

 without bawling in his ear. The scene must have 

 been exciting and disgusting. The ground was 

 strewed with broken limbs of trees, eggs, and 

 young squab pigeons, on which herds of hogs 

 were fattening. In the air, great numbers of 

 hawks, buzzards, and eagles were sailing, bearing 

 away the squabs from their nests at pleasure, 

 while from twenty feet upwards to the tree-tops 

 was one perpetual tumult of crowding and flutter- 

 ing multitudes of pigeons, their wings roaring 

 like thunder. This din was heightened by the 

 crash of falling timber as the strokes of the axemen 

 brought down the trees most crowded with nests, 

 which they contrived to fell so as to bring down 

 several other trees in the fall. Two hundred 

 squabs, little inferior in size to the old ones, and 

 one heap of fat, were sometimes collected from 

 one fallen tree. Each nest contained one squab 

 only. 



Wilson passed for several miles through this 

 same breeding-place, after the pigeons abandoned 

 it for another sixty or eighty miles ofF, and saw 

 enough of the remains of the nests to satisfy him 

 that the account which he had heard was not ex- 

 aggerated. The great numbers that passed over 

 his head confirmed him in this opinion. Not- 

 withstanding the havoc that had been made among 

 the birds, they still swarmed. The mast had 

 been for the most part consumed in Kentucky ; 

 and every morning, a little before sunrise, masses 

 of these pigeons set out for the Indiana territory, 

 about sixty miles distant. Many of them returned 

 before ten o'clock, but the main body generally 

 appeared on their return a little after noon. 



Wilson had left the public road to visit the 

 ruins of the breeding-place near Shelbyville, and 

 was traversing the woods with his gun on the 

 way to Frankfort, when, about ten o'clock, the 

 pigeons which he had observed during the greater 

 part of the morning flying northerly, began to re- 

 turn in such immense numbers as he had never 

 before seen. He stopped at an opening by the 

 side of Benson Creek, where he had a more unin- 

 terrupted view, and there to his astonishment he 

 beheld them flying with great steadiness and rapid- 

 ity at a height above gun-shot, in several strata 



deep, and close together. On they came, and 

 from right to left as far as the eye could reach, 

 the breadth of this vast winged procession, every- 

 where equally crowded, extended. He took out 

 his watch to note the time, and sat down to ob- 

 serve the passing masses. It was half-past one, 

 and for more than an hour did Wilson sit, ex- 

 pecting that this aerial animated stream would 

 cease to flow ; but instead of a diminution, the vast 

 procession seemed to increase in numbers and 

 rapidity. As he was anxious to reach Frankfort 

 before night, he rose and went on. At that town 

 he crossed Kentucky river, about four o'clock in 

 the afternoon, at which time the living torrent 

 above his head seemed as strong and as extensive 

 as ever. Long after this, large bodies continued 

 to pass for six or eight minutes. These were 

 followed by other detached flights, all moving in 

 the same south-east direction, till after six o'clock 

 in the evening. 



A rough calculation of this mass was made by 

 the delightful American ornithologist, and he came 

 to the conclusion that its whole length was 240 

 miles, and that the numbers composing it amounted 

 to 2,230,272,000 pigeons at least ; indeed, he ex- 

 presses his conviction that these enormous num- 

 bers are probably far below the actual amount. 



Think of the consumption of such legions. 

 Wilson did think of it, and observes, that allow- 

 ing each pigeon to consume half a pint of food per 

 diem, the whole quantity would equal 17,424,000 

 bushels daily. 



Audubon, who has, to the great regret of his 

 friends, lately gone, full of years and honors, by 

 that dark road which must be passed by us all, 

 confirms Wilson in every particular, except that 

 Audubon declares that the passenger pigeon lays 

 tivo eggs. We have seen that, in confinement, 

 this bird, like the gouras, laid but one. 



Lawson, in his Natural History of Carolina, 

 (1714,) records facts which confirm Wilson and 

 Audubon as to the numbers of these pigeons, de- 

 claring that the flocks, as they passed, in great 

 measure obstructed the light of day. 



The great fertility of the dove-kind suffices to 

 keep up numbers more than adequate to resist the 

 attacks of hawks and other birds of prey, and the 

 still more sweeping destruction of man the omnir- 

 orous. Biberg* remarks, that if you suppose 

 two pigeons to hatch nine times a year, they may 

 produce in four years 14,672 young ; arid Stilling- 

 fleet states that these numbers ought to have been 

 14,670, or the expression should have been al- 

 tered, for Biberg includes the first pair. 



On the day that I observed the young hybrid 

 goura," I watched the wart-hogs (Phacochcerus.) 

 Their mode of attack is by going on their knees 

 like the gnu; and, young as they were, they al- 

 ready had callosities on those parts. They were 

 exercising their tusks in a sham-fight with an 

 empty bag, which, dropping on their knees, they 

 charged, tossed up, and, rising, caught it on their 

 tusks. In the course of their gambols, they threw 

 . * Am. Acad. 



