BIRDS. 503 



by the weight of the birds clustering one above another; and the trees 

 themselves, for thousands of acres, killed as completely as if girdled with 

 an axe." 



One of their breeding-places not far from Shelbyville, Ky., " stretched 

 through the woods in nearly a north and south direction, was several miles 

 in breadth, and was said to be upwards of forty miles in extent! In this 

 tract almost every tree was furnished with nests wherever the branches 

 could accommodate them. . . . 



"As soon as the young were fully grown, and before they left their nests, 

 numerous parties of the inhabitants, from all parts of the adjacent country, 

 came with wagons, axes, beds, cooking-utensils, many of them accom- 

 panied by the greater part of their families, and encamped for several 

 days at this immense nursery. Several of them informed me that the 

 noise in the woods was so great as to terrify their horses, and that it was 

 difficult for one person to hear another speak without bawling in his 

 ear. . . . The view through the woods presented a perpetual tumult of 

 crowding and fluttering multitudes of pigeons, their wings roaring like 

 thunder, mingled with the frequent crash of falling timber ; for now the 

 axe-men were at work cutting clown those trees that seemed to be most 

 crowded with nests, and contrived to fell them in such a manner, that in 

 their descent they might bring down several others, by means of which 

 the falling of one large tree sometimes produced two hundred squabs, little 

 inferior in size to the old ones, and almost one mass of fat." 



One more quotation must suffice, interesting as the subject is. Wilson 

 saw an immense flock in northern Kentucky, which he describes as follows : 

 " From right to left as far as the eye could reach the breadth of this vast 

 procession extended ; seeming everywhere equally crowded. Curious to 

 determine how long this appearance would continue, I took out my watch 

 to note the time, and sat down to observe them. It was then half-past 

 one. I sat for more than an hour, but instead of a diminution of this pro- 

 digious procession, it seemed to increase both in numbers and rapidity ; 

 and, anxious to reach Frankfort before night, I arose and went on. About 

 four o'clock in the afternoon I crossed the Kentucky River at the town of 

 Frankfort, at which time the living torrent above my head seemed as 

 numerous and extensive as ever. ... If we suppose this column to have 

 been a mile in breadth (and I believe it to have been much more), and that 

 it moved at the rate of one mile in a minute ; four hours, the time it con- 

 tinued passing, would make its whole length two hundred and forty miles. 

 Again, supposing that each square yard of this moving body comprehended 

 three pigeons ; the square yards in the whole space, multiplied by three, 

 would give two thousand two hundred and thirty millions, two hundred 



