A STORY FROM AUDUBON 145 



foliage, but again emerge, and are seen gliding aloft. 

 They now alight, but the next moment, as if suddenly 

 alarmed, they take to wing, producing by the flap- 

 pings of their wings a noise like the roar of distant 

 thunder, and sweep through the forests to see if dan- 

 ger is near. Hunger, however, soon brings them to 

 the ground. When alighted, they are seen indus- 

 triously throwing up the withered leaves in quest of 

 the fallen mast. The rear ranks are continually 

 rising, passing over the main body, and alighting in 

 front, in such rapid succession, that the whole flock 

 seems still on wing. The quantity of ground thus 

 swept is astonishing, and so completely has it been 

 cleared that the gleaner who might follow in their 

 rear would find his labor completely lost. While 

 feeding, their avidity is at times so great that in at- 

 tempting to swallow a large acorn or nut, they are 

 seen gasping for a long while, as if in the agonies of 

 suffocation. 



" 'On such occasions, when the woods are filled 

 with these pigeons, they are killed in immense num- 

 bers, although no apparent diminution ensues. . . . 

 As the sun begins to sink beneath the horizon, they 

 depart en masse for the roosting-place. . . . 



66 'Let us now inspect their place of nightly ren- 

 dezvous. One of these curious roosting-places, on 

 the banks of the Green Eiver in Kentucky, I repeat- 

 edly visited. It was, as is always the case, in a por- 

 tion of the forest where the trees were of great mag- 

 nitude, and where there was little underwood. . . . 

 My first view of it was about a fortnight subsequent 



