BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 351 



The PASSENGER PIGEON, Columba migratoria, is a hardy 

 wayfarer, which cares very little for climate, and is governed 

 in its migrations, not by the desire to escape a cold climate, or 

 to build its nest in a mild one, but simply by the necessity of 

 going where food abounds, because no small supply will satisfy 

 the appetite of such immense numbers. Having powers of 

 vision equal to their power of flight, they can easily take a sur- 

 vey of the country over which they are passing ; if they de- 

 termine to descend, they break the force of their motion by 

 repeated flappings of their wings, to keep themselves from be- 

 ing injured by dashing upon the ground. So swiftly do they 

 move over an immense extent of country, that they have been 

 killed near New York, with their crops full of rice from South 

 Carolina plantations. In the Atlantic states, their numbers are 

 nothing compared to the countless multitudes which assemble 

 in the west, where, as they pass over, the rush and roar seem 

 like those of a tornado, darkening all the sky. But their num- 

 bers, though reduced from those of former times, are still con- 

 siderable, and as soon as it is known in a neighborhood, that 

 the pigeons are flying over, it is the signal for assembling all 

 the arts and instruments of destruction. Many are shot with 

 the gun ; many are taken with nets ; and others are decoyed 

 by pigeons with their eyes blinded, which are stationed on a 

 roost, provided for the purpose j the roost being shaken with 

 a string, these pigeons open their wings to balance themselves j 

 and the wayfarers, supposing that they have just alighted, after 

 examining the region, think it safe to come down and join 

 them without farther investigation. 



The accounts of the breeding places of the pigeons at the 

 west are almost incredible. Some of them extend several 

 miles, covering thousands of acres ; the grass and underwood 

 is all destroyed ; the ground overspread with limbs, broken 

 down with the weight of the birds clustering upon them, and 

 the trees killed as completely as if girdled with the axe. When 

 the young are fully grown, but have not yet left the nest, a 

 general invasion is made upon the spot. Hawks and eagles 

 snatch them from above ; hogs devour the thousands that fall 



