CHAP. VIII. MIGRATORY PIGEON OP AMERICA. 253 



them were mere straggling parties, when compared 

 with the congregated millions which I have since 

 beheld in our western forests, in the states of Ohio, 

 Kentucky, and Indiana. These fertile and extensive 

 regions abound with the nutritious beech nut, which 

 constitutes the chief food of the wild pigeon. In 

 seasons when these nuts are abundant, corresponding 

 multitudes of pigeons may be confidently expected. It 

 sometimes happens that, having consumed the whole 

 produce of the beech trees in an extensive district, they 

 discover another, at the distance, perhaps, of sixty or 

 eighty miles, to which they regularly repair every morn- 

 ing, and return as regularly in the course of the day, or in 

 the evening, to their place of general rendezvous, or, as 

 it is usually called, the roosting place. These roosting 

 places are always in the woods, and sometimes occupy 

 a large extent of forest. When they have frequented 

 one of these places for some time, the appearance it 

 exhibits is surprising. The ground is covered to the 

 depth of several inches with their dung ; all the tender 

 grass and underwood destroyed ; the surface strewed 

 with large limbs of trees, broken down by the weight 

 .of the birds clustering one above another; and the 

 trees, themselves, for thousands of acres, killed as com- 

 pletely as if girdled with an axe. The marks of this 

 desolation remain for many years on the spot ; and 

 numerous places could be pointed out, where, for several 

 years after, scarcely a single vegetable made its appear- 

 ance.." But we must pass over a large portion of this 

 wonderful narrative, and confine our remaining ex- 

 tracts to the migrations of these countless myriads 

 witnessed, and thus described, by the great American 

 ornithologist. " I had left the public road, to visit the 

 remains of one of these breeding places near Shelby- 

 ville when, about one o'clock, the pigeons began to 

 return in such immense numbers as I never before had 

 witnessed. Coming to an opening by the side of a 

 creek called the Benson, where I had a most uninter- 

 rupted view, I was astonished at their appearance. 



