THE PIGEON. 



girdled with an axe. Sometimes, for thousand* of 

 acres in extent, this destruction is as complete, as it 

 would have been, had it been burned over, and the 

 marks of it remain for many years afterwards. 



When an encampment of this kind is discovered, the 

 news is spread abroad, and the people come from va- 

 rious distances, with guns, long poles, and other mean* 

 of destruction, and attack the poor birds on all sides, 

 These attacks are made in the night, when the birds 

 can see nothing, and consequently cannot take any 

 means to avoid destruction. In a short time thou- 

 sands are killed, so that these hunters fill their sacks, 

 and load their horses and waggons, and are ready by 

 morning to .go off with their booty. 



Accounts of the places where these birds build their 

 nests, and hatch their young, are still more extraor- 

 dinary. 



In the States above mentioned, places of this kind 

 present the most novel and curious appearances. The 

 nests are built on the trees of the forest, and nearly 

 every tree is occupied with a greater, or less number, 

 through a large extent of country. 



In the State of Kentucky, some years ago, one of 

 these nestling places extended through the woods, it 

 was said, to the distance of forty miles, in a straight 

 line, and was generally several miles wide. In this 

 tract, nearly every tree contained as many nests as the 

 branches could accommodate. 



As soon as the young were fully grown, the people 

 came from all parts of the country, with waggons, ax~ 

 es, beds, cooking vessels, and some of them with their 

 whole families, and encamped around this vast nurse- 



