348 Meteorological Journal for the year 1840. 



harvest begun ; 27, chandler apple ripe ; July 2, wheat harvest 

 begun ; 14, Vaccinium frondosum, or whortleberry, ripe, grows on 

 the hills, amongst the yellow pine ; 15, Rubus villosus, or black- 

 berry ripe. 



Columba migratoria. — The forest trees generally, this year 

 abounded with fruit, being what is called in the west, "a fine 

 year for mast." In such seasons, we are generally visited with 

 immense flocks of the Columba migratoria, or wood pigeon. 

 This year they appeared about the 15th of September, filling the 

 woods with their numbers. One of their " roosts" was selected 

 about a mile and a half from Marietta, in the uplands, where the 

 timber was a second growth ; the trees generally small, and 

 many of them mere saplings. From near sunset to an hour af- 

 ter, the air was filled with their winged squadrons, and the trees 

 and bushes loaded with pigeons, seeking a resting place for the 

 night. They found it however, a very unquiet one, for the 

 young men and boys visited them every night with torches of 

 pine wood, killing them with shot guns, and knocking many 

 down with sticks, until they were tired with the sport. After 

 about two weeks, the pigeons shifted their nocturnal camping 

 ground, either from the disturbance of the hunters, or to a more 

 plentiful region for food. The " roost" covered a space of sev- 

 eral hundred acres, so that their numbers must have amounted to 

 many millions. Between daylight and sunrise, they uniformly 

 visited the shore of the Ohio river, for drink, or for small gravel 

 stones to assist in digesting. At this period, the vigilant sports- 

 man had fine amusement in shooting them on the wing, as they 

 rose over the top of the bank where he was standing, killing 

 sometimes two or three dozen at a single discharge. Although 

 this beautiful bird has been subject to the depredation of man for 

 more than fifty years in Ohio, in addition to the multitudes that 

 annually fall a prey to their feathered enemies, they still exist 

 in vast numbers. What then must have been the amount of 

 their winged hosts, as they yearly migrated from the warm re- 

 gions of the south, to the cooler districts of the north, as instinct 

 and habit directed, before civilization had made any inroads on 

 the vast forests which had for ages supplied them with food. 



Marietta, January 5lh, 1841. 



