148 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



able to fly had disappeared. The howlings of the 

 wolves now reached our ears, and the foxes, lynxes, 

 cougars, bears, racoons, opossums, and polecats were 

 seen sneaking off, whilst eagles and hawks of differ- 

 ent species, accompanied by a crowd of vultures, 

 came to supplant them, and enjoy their share of the 

 spoil. 



" 'It was then that the authors of all this devasta- 

 tion began their entry amongst the dead, the dying, 

 and the mangled. The pigeons were picked up and 

 piled in heaps, until each had as many as he could 

 possibly dispose of, when the hogs were let loose to 

 feed on the remainder.' 



"Here ends Audubon's story. What do you think 

 of it, my friends?" 



"I think, " Jules replied, "that those flocks of 

 pigeons darkening the sky and taking several days to 

 pass over are the most astonishing thing I have ever 

 heard of about birds." 



"And I," said Emile, "am still thinking of that 

 shower of dung that falls from the sky, as thick as 

 flakes of snow in winter, when the pigeons are flying 

 over. Everywhere they fly the ground is whitened 

 with this singular shower." 



"And those trees breaking under the pigeons' 

 weight," Louis exclaimed; "those three hundred 

 pigs let loose to surfeit on what the hunters have left 

 all that would seem incredible to me if Uncle Paul 

 had not assured us it was so." 



"It 's a great pity," sighed Emile, "that we have 

 no such flocks of pigeons here. If they are knocked 



