292 ROOSTING PLACES OF WILD PIGEONS. 



descent they might bring down several others; by which 

 means the falling of one large tree sometimes produce two 

 hundred squabs, little inferior in size to the old ones, and almost 

 one mass of fat. 



In many instances, I counted upwards of ninety nests on a 

 single tree ; but the Pigeons had abandoned this place for 

 another, sixty or eighty miles off, towards Green river, where 

 they were said at that time to be equally numerous. From 

 the great numbers that were constantly passing over head, to 

 or from that quarter, I had no doubt of the truth of this state- 

 ment. The mast had been chiefly consumed in Kentucky, 

 and the Pigeons, every morning, a little before sun-rise, set 

 out for the Indiana territory, the nearest part of which was 

 about sixty miles distant. Many of these returned before ten 

 o'clock, and the great body generally appeared on their return 

 a little after noon. I had left the public road, to visit the re- 

 mains of the breeding place near Shelby ville, and was traver- 

 sing the woods with my gun, in my way to Frankfort, when 

 about one o'clock the Pigeons, which I had observed flying 

 the greater part of the morning northerly, began to return in 

 such immense numbers as I never before had witnessed. 

 Curious to determine how long this appearance would con- 

 tinue, 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 prodigious pro- 

 cession, it seemed rather to increase both in numbers and 

 rapidity ; and, anxious to reach Frankfort before night, I rose 

 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 as 

 extensive as ever. Long after this I observed them, in large 

 bodies that continued to pass for six or eight minutes, and 

 these again were followed by other detached bodies, all mov- 

 ing in the same south-east direction, till after six in the evening. 

 The great breadth of front which this mighty multitude pre- 

 served, would seem to intimate a corresponding breadth of their 

 breeding place, which by several gentlemen who had lately 

 passed through part of it, was stated to me at several miles. 



