THE PASSENGER-PIGEON 245 



ance in the more southerly territories being very irre- 

 gular. As the beech-mast constituted the principal 

 food of this species of wild pigeon, in seasons when the 

 small brown nuts were abundant, corresponding multi- 

 tudes of pigeons raided the beech forests. Their roost- 

 ing-places were always in the woods, and frequently 

 occupied a large extent of forest. Such areas exhibited 

 a very strange and desolate appearance after harbour- 

 ing a colony of " passengers " for some time. The 

 ground would be covered with the droppings of the 

 birds to a depth of several inches, all the grass and 

 under-covert destroyed, the surface strewn with branches 

 of trees broken down by the weight of the pigeons cluster- 

 ing upon them, and the trees themselves, for thousands 

 of acres, killed as completely as though " girdled " with 

 an axe. The marks of such desolation remained for 

 many years, and no vegetation of any kind would grow 

 upon ground so fouled. 



The nesting-sites of the passenger-pigeon covered a 

 far wider extent of woodland even than did the roost- 

 ing-places. In the western portions of Canada and the 

 United States these huge bird-nurseries were usually 

 found in beech forests and frequently extended, in 

 practically a straight line, across country for a great 

 distance. 



Wilson, in his celebrated work, American Ornithology , 

 speaks of one of these nesting-sites which ran through 

 the forests of Kentucky', in a nearly north and south 

 direction, a distance of forty miles. The breadth of this 

 extraordinary belt of nests extended to several miles. 

 Practically every tree within this tract was furnished 

 with nests wherever the branches could accommodate 



