582 AVES—PIGEON. 
trees, two feet in diameter, I observed, were broken at no great distance from 
the ground, and the branches of many of the largest and tallest so much so, 
that the desolations already exhibited, equalled that performed by a furious 
tornado. As the time elapsed, I saw each of the anxious persons about to 
prepare for action; some with sulphur in iron pots, others with torches of 
pine knots, many with poles, and the rest with guns, double and treble 
charged. The sun was lost to our view, and not a pigeon had yet arrived; 
but, all of a sudden, I heard a general cry of ‘ Here they come!’ The noise 
which they made, though distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea, passe 
ing through the rigging of a close-reefed vessel. As the birds arrived, and 
passed over me, I felt a current of air that surprised me. Thousands were 
soon knocked down by the polemen. ‘The current of birds, however, kept 
increasing. The fires were lighted, and a most magnificent as well as won- 
derful and terrifying sight was before me. The pigeons, coming in by mil- 
lions, alighted every where, one on the top of another, until masses of them, 
resembling hanging swarms of bees as large as hogsheads, were formed on 
every tree in all directions. These heavy clusters were seen to give way, as 
the supporting branches, breaking down with a crash, came to the ground, 
killing hundreds of those which obstructed their fall, forcing down other 
equally large and heavy groups, and rendering the whole a scene of uproar 
and of distressing confusion. I found it quite useless to speak, or even to 
shout to those persons nearest me. The reports even of the different guns 
were seldom heard, and I knew only of their going off by seeing the owners 
reload them. 
“No person dared venture within the line of devastation, and the hogs 
had been penned up in due time, the picking of the dead and wounded suf- 
ferers being left for the next morning’s operation. Still the pigeons were 
constantly coming, and it was past midnight before I perceived a decrease 
in the number of those that arrived. The uproar continued, however, the 
whole night; and, as I was anxious to know to what distance the sound 
reached, I sent off a man, who, by his habits in the woods, was able to tell 
me, two hours afterwards, that at three miles he heard it distinctly. Towards 
the approach of day, the noise rather subsided; but, long ere the objects 
were all distinguishable, the pigeons began to move off in a direction quite dif- 
ferent from that in which they had arrived the day before, and at sunrise, 
none that were able to fly remained. The howling of the wolves now 
reached our ears, and the foxes, the lynxes, the cougars, bears, racoons, 
opossums, and polecats, were seen sneaking off the spot, whilst the eagles 
and hawks of different species, supported by a horde of buzzards and car- 
rion crows, came to supplant them, and reap the benefits of this night of 
destruction. 
“Tt was then that I, and all those present, began our entry amongst the 
dead aid wounded sufferers. They were picked up in great numbers, until 
