VERTEBRATA. AVES. 



part shot downwards out of the common track ; but, 

 soon rising, continued advancing at the same height 

 as before. This inflection was continued by those 

 behind, who, on arriving at this point, dived down 

 almost perpendicularly to a great depth, and rising, 

 followed the exact path of those that went before. 

 As these vast bodies passed over the river near me, 

 the surface of the water, which was before smooth as 

 glass, appeared marked with innumerable dimples, 

 occasioned by the dropping of their dung, resembling 

 the commencement of a shower of large drops of rain 

 or hail." 



The description of their breeding-places is not less 

 astounding : Wilson mentions one near Shelbyville, 

 in Kentucky, which " 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 be- 

 fore they left the nests, numerous parties of the inha- 

 bitants from all parts of the adjacent country, came 

 with waggons, axes, beds, cooking utensils, many of 

 them accompanied by the greater part of their fami- 

 lies, 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 ground was 

 strewed with broken limbs of trees, eggs, and young 

 squab Pigeons, which had been precipitated from 



