A PIGEON EOOST. 579 



lightning, that part shot downwards out of the common track ; but soon rising again, 

 continued advancing at the same rate as before. This reflection 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 before them." 



Let us now see what Audubon has to say on this subject. The reader will remark the 

 brilliant account given by Wilson, of the effects produced by the attack of a hawk on 

 a flock. Audubon has also remarked the same circumstance, and says : " But I cannot 

 describe to you the extreme beauty of their aerial evolutions when a hawk chanced to 

 press upon the rear of a flock. At once, like a torrent, and with a noise like thunder, 

 they rushed into a compact mass, pressing upon each other towards the centre. In these 

 almost solid masses, they darted forward in undulating and angular lines, descended and 

 swept close over the earth with inconceivable velocity, mounted perpendicularly so as to 

 resemble a vast column, and when high, were seen wheeling and twisting within tbeir 

 continued lines, which then resembled the coils of a gigantic serpent." 



Writing of the breeding places of these birds, the same author proceeds as follows : 



" One of these curious roosting-places on the banks of the Green Eiver in Kentucky 

 I repeatedly visited. It was, as is always the case, a portion of the forest where the trees 

 are of great magnitude, and where there was little underwood. I rode through it upwards 

 of forty miles, and found its average breadth to be rather more than three miles. My 

 first view of it was about a fortnight subsequent to the period when they had made choice 

 of it, and I arrived there nearly two hours before sunset. 



Few pigeons were then to be seen, but a great number of persons with horses and 

 waggons, guns and ammunition, had already established encampments on the borders. 

 Two farmers from the vicinity of Kusselsville, distant more than a hundred miles, had 

 driven upwards of three hundred hogs to be fattened on the pigeons that were to be 

 slaughtered. Here and there the people employed in plucking and salting what had 

 already been procured were seen sitting in the midst of large piles of these birds. Many 

 trees two feet in diameter I observed were broken off at no great distance from the 

 ground ; and the branches of many of the largest and tallest had given way, as if the 

 forest had been swept by a tornado. Everything proved to me that the number of birds 

 resorting to this part of the forest must be immense beyond conception. As the period 

 of their arrival approached, their foes anxiously prepared to receive them ; some were 

 furnished with iron pots containing sulphur others with torches of pine-knots, many 

 with poles, and the rest with guns. The sun was lost to our view, yet not a pigeon had 

 arrived. Everything was ready, and all eyes were gazing on the clear sky which appeared 

 in glimpses amidst the tall trees. 



Suddenly there burst forth a general cry of 'Here they come.' The noise which 

 they made, though yet distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea, passing through the 

 rigging of a close reefed vessel. As the birds arrived and passed over me I felt a current 

 of air that surprised me. Thousands were soon knocked down by the pole-men ; the 

 birds continued to pour in ; the fires were lighted, and a most magnificent as well as 

 wonderful and almost terrifying sight presented itself. The pigeons arriving by thousands 

 alighted everywhere, one above another, until solid masses as large as hogsheads were 

 formed on the branches all round. Here and there the perches gave way with a crash, 

 and falling on the ground destroyed hundreds of the birds beneath, forcing down the 

 dense groups with which every stick was loaded. 



It was a scene of uproar and confusion ; no one dared venture within the line of 

 devastation : the hogs had been penned up in due time, the picking up of the dead 

 and wounded being left for next morning's employment. The pigeons were constantly 

 coming, and it was past midnight before I perceived a decrease in the number of those 

 that arrived. Towards the approach of day the noise in some measure subsided ; long 

 before objects were distinguishable the pigeons began to move off in a direction quite 

 different from that in which they had arrived the evening before, and at sunrise all 

 that were able to fly had disappeared. The howlings of the wolves now reached our 

 ears, and the foxes, lynxes, cougars, bears, racoons, and opossums were seen sneaking off, 



p p 2 



