BIRDS OF INDIANA. 7 ill 



i\l i^ranl ; J'nnnci'lv very a!>i!n<lant, Iml now rare; al~< rare resident. 

 lla\e J'oimd them fro/en in death in severe weather in I lie winter. 

 Formerly hml throughout the State. Perhaps still does, rarely, in 

 northern Indiana 1 think the greater number were migrants, though 

 many were summer residents. These birds were gregarious, and moved 

 about in flocks ranging in numbers from a few individuals to vast 

 droves of incalculable numbers. They generally appeared in southern 

 Indiana as migrants, some years arriving in September. The greater 

 number passed south when severe weather began and returned in 

 force in February and March. The great bulk went north into 

 Michigan and other northern States to breed, nesting in large colonies. 

 But many bred throughout our State, singly; and sometimes colonies 

 of them nested. Their winter residence was determined by the quan- 

 tity of mast, but in general it could be said to be somewhere in the 

 area of the beech woods, at least in the Ohio Valley. 



It is difficult for a young person to appreciate the accounts the older 

 inhabitants give of the former abundance of these birds. 



I am indebted to my father, now over eighty-seven years of age, and 

 a native of the State, for many facts relating to these, and also other 

 birds. He says, in 1831-2, the pigeon roosts in the vicinity of Vernon, 

 which had become noted as the most extensive in that part of the 

 State, were occupied by great numbers of pigeons. They moved in 

 flocks so large the sky could not be seen in any direction as far as the 

 eye could reach. They also nested in that locality in great abundance. 

 The "roost" in the vicinity of Brookville, in the months of January 

 and February, 1854, while not so large as many others, was so near 

 home that accounts of it made an impression on my mind. One even- 

 ing, when it was cloudy, my father went with a company of friends to 

 it. The birds were much frightened by the shooting about their roost, 

 and, just after sun-down, arose en masse and soared out of sight in the 

 dusk of the winter evening, while from the direction of the cloud of 

 birds came a noise as of a violent windstorm. As the darkness in- 

 creased, the multitude descended and alighted upon the limbs of the 

 forest trees in such numbers as to break many off. After night, the 

 scene is described as one never to be forgotten. The squawking of the 

 pigeons, the breaking of the limbs of giant trees beneath their living 

 weight, the continuous rumble arising from the whirr of countless 

 wings, the rapid firing of guns, produced an effect which no words 

 can convey to one who has not experienced a night at a "pigeon 

 roost." In 1869 Dr. Haymond said: "Still seen in large numbers, t 

 though evidently they have been constantly diminishing in numbers 



