THE PIGEON. 79 



ly, where they lived on the young Pigeons, and carri- 

 ed away as many as they wanted. 



Such was the noise made by this vast multitude, that 

 the horses were terrified, the people were astonished, 

 and no person could hear another speak, without bawl- 

 ing in his ear. The tops of every tree presented a 

 tumult of Pigeons, crowding about their young, and 

 fluttering with their wings, so as to produce a perpet- 

 ual roar like that of thunder. Mingled with this, was 

 the frequent crash of falling trees, for the people cut 

 down such as contained the greatest number of nests, 

 so as the more readily to come at the young ones. 

 Sometimes one tree in its fall would sweep two or 

 three smaller ones along with it, so that the cutting 

 down a single tree would often produce two hundred 

 Pigeons. Only the young ones were sought for, but 

 these were almost as large as their parents, arid almost 

 one mass of fat. 



Some trees contained more than one hundred nests, 

 and it was dangerous to walk under them, on account 

 of the frequent fall of large branches, which were bro- 

 ken off by the combined weight of the nests and Pi- 

 geons. 



At the time Mr. Wilson was in Kentucky, the Pi- 

 geons had consumed most of the food in that part of 

 the country, and had found another feeding place in 

 Indiana, sixty or eighty miles distant. From one of 

 these places to the other, they were flying in such vast 

 numbers, as to exceed all his belief, though he had re- 

 ceived the most wonderful account of their flights from 

 the inhabitants. 



* They were," says Mr. Wilson, tf flying with great 



