438 ^ PIGEON ROOST. 



" Other lesser bodies united with each other as they happened to approach, with such ease 

 and elegance of evolutions, forming new figures, and varying them as they united or separated, 

 that I was never tired of contemplating them. Sometimes a hawk would make a sweep on a 

 particular part of the column, when, almost as quick as lightning, that part shot downwards 

 out of the common track ; but soon rising again, continued advancing at the same rate as 

 before. This reflection was continued by those behind, who on arriving at this point dived 

 down almost perpendicularly to a great depth, and rising, followed the exact path of those 

 before them." 



Let us now see what Audubon has to say on this subject. The reader will remark the 

 brilliant account given by Wilson, of the effects produced by the attack of a hawk on a flock. 

 Audubon has also remarked the same circumstance, and says : " But I cannot describe to you 

 the extreme beauty of their aerial evolutions when a hawk chanced to press upon the rear of a 

 flock. At once, like a torrent, and with a noise like thunder, they rushed into a compact mass, 

 pressing upon each other towards the centre. In these almost solid masses, they darted for- 

 ward in undiilating and angular lines, descended and swept close over the earth with incon- 

 ceivable velocity, mounted perpendicularly so as to resemble a vast column, and when high, 

 were seen wheeling and twisting within their continued lines, which then resembled the coils 

 of a gigantic serpent." 



Writing of the breeding -places of these birds, the same author proceeds as follows : 



"One of these curious roosting-places on the banks of the Green River, in Kentucky, I 

 repeatedly visited. It was, as is always the case, a portion of the forest where the trees are of 

 great magnitude, and where there was little underwood. I rode through it upwards of forty 

 miles, and found its average breadth to be rather more than three miles. My first view of it 

 was about a fortnight subsequent to the period when they had made choice of it, and I arrived 

 there nearly two hours before sunset. 



"Few pigeons were then to be seen, but a great number of persons with horses and 

 wagons, guns and ammunition, had already established encampments on the borders. Two 

 farmers from the vicinity of Russelsville, distant more than a hundred miles, had driven 

 upwards of three hundred hogs to be fattened on the pigeons that were to be slaughtered. 

 Here and there the people employed in plucking and salting what had already been procured 

 were seen sitting in the midst of large piles of these birds. Many trees two feet in diameter 1 

 observed were broken off at no great distance from the ground ; and the branches of many of 

 the largest and tallest had given way, as if the forest had been swept by a tornado. Every- 

 thing proved to me that the number of birds resorting to this part of the forest must be 

 immense beyond conception. As the period of their arrival approached, their foes anxiously 

 prepared to receive them ; some were furnished with iron pots containing sulphur others with 

 torches of pine-knots, many with poles, and the rest with guns. The sun was lost to our view, 

 yet not a pigeon had arrived. Everything was ready, and all eyes were gazing on the clear 

 sky which appeared in glimpses amidst the tall trees. 



"Suddenly there burst forth a general cry of 'Here they come.' The noise which they 

 made, though yet distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea, passing through the rigging of a 

 close-reefed vessel. As the birds arrived and passed over me, I felt a current of air that 

 surprised me. Thousands were soon knocked down by the pole-men ; the birds continued to 

 pour in ; the fires were lighted, and a most magnificent as well as wonderful and almost ter- 

 rifying sight presented itself. The pigeons arriving by thousands alighted everywhere, one 

 above another, until solid masses as large as hogsheads were formed on the branches all round. 

 Here and there the perches gave way with a crash, and falling on the ground destroyed hun- 

 dreds of the birds beneath, forcing down the dense groups with which every stick was loaded. 



" It was a scene of uproar and confusion ; no one dared venture within the line of devasta- 

 tion ; the hogs had been penned up in due time, the picking up of the dead and wounded being 

 left for next morning's employment. The pigeons were constantly coming, and it was past 

 midnight before I perceived a decrease in the number of those that arrived. Towards the 

 approach of day the noise in some measure subsided ; long before objects were distinguishable 



