PASSENGER-PIGEONS. 



203 



decessors. Now they once more change their direction — the 

 column becoming an immense front, sweeping the heavens in 

 one vast and infinitely 

 extended line. Sud- 

 denly a hawk makes 

 a sweep on a parti- 

 cular part of the col- 

 umn, when almost as 

 quick as lightning that 

 part shoots down- 

 wards out of the com- 

 mon track ; but soon 

 again rising, advances 

 at the same rate as 

 before. 



We will now hurry 

 on towards their 

 breeding place, a 

 forest on the banks 

 of the Green River 

 in Kentucky, fully 

 forty miles in length, 

 and more than three 

 in width. In the 

 neighbourhood are as- 

 sembled a large num- 

 ber of persons, with 

 horses, waggons, guns, 

 and ammunition ; and 

 a farmer has brouoht three hundred hoixs to be fattened on the 

 refuse pigeons. As the vast flight arrives at the spot, thousands 



A.N ENCAMPMENT OF PIGEON-nUNTERS. 



