A Paradise of Birds 



were constantly coming in and it was after 

 midnight before I perceived a decrease in the 

 number of those that arrived. The uproar con- 

 tinued all night, and anxious to know how far 

 the sound reached I sent off a man who, return- 

 ing two hours after, informed me that he had 

 heard it distinctly three miles distant. 



"Toward daylight the noise in some measure 

 subsided ; long before objects were distinguish- 

 able the pigeons began to move off in a direc- 

 tion quite different from that in which they had 

 arrived the evening before, and at sunrise all 

 that were able to fly had disappeared. The 

 howling of the wolves now reached our ears, 

 and the foxes, lynxes, cougars, bears, coons, 

 opossums, and polecats were seen sneaking 

 off, while eagles and hawks of different species, 

 accompanied by a crowd of vultures, came to 

 supplant them and enjoy a share of the spoil. 



"Then the authors of all this devastation 



began their entry amongst the dead, the dying 



and mangled. The pigeons were picked up 



and piled in heaps until each had as many as 



I 165 ] 



