PASSENGER PIGEON. 323 



On such occasions, when the woods are filled with these Pigeons, they 

 are killed in immense numbers, although no apparent diminution ensvies. 

 About the middle of the day, after their repast is finished, they settle on 

 the trees, to enjoy rest, and digest their food. On the ground they 

 walk with ease, as well as on the branches, frequently jerking their beau- 

 tiful tail, and moving the neck backwards and forwards in the most grace- 

 ful manner. As the sun begins to sink beneath the horizon, they depart 

 en masse for the roosting-place, which not unfrequently is hundreds of 

 miles distant, as has been ascertained by persons who have kept an ac- 

 count of their arrivals and departures. _ V 

 Let us now, kind reader, inspect their place of nightly rendezvous. , 

 One of these curious roosting-places, on the banks of the Green River in \. 

 Kentucky, I repeatedly visited. It was, as is always the case, in a por- \ 

 lion of the forest where the trees were of great magnitude, and where \ 

 there was little underwood. I rode through it upwards of forty miles, | 

 and, crossing it in different parts, found its average breadth to be rather i 

 more than three miles. My first view of it was about a fortnight subse- 

 quent to the period when they had made choice of it, and I arrived there 

 nearly two hours before sunset. Few Pigeons were then to be seen, but 

 a great number of persons, with horses and waggons, guns and ammuni- 

 tion, had already established encampments^on the borders. Two farmers 

 from the vicinity of Russelsville, distant more than a hundred miles, had 

 driven upwards of three hundred hogs to be fattened on the pigeons 

 which were to be slaughtered. Here and there, the people employed in 

 plucking and salting what had already been procured, were seen sit- / 

 ting in the midst of large piles of these birds. The dung lay several i 

 inches deep, covering the whole extent of the roosting-place, like | 

 a bed of snow. Many trees two feet in diameter, I observed, were • 

 broken off^ at no great distance from the ground ; and the branches of | 

 many of the largest and tallest had given way, as if the forest had been j 

 swept by a tornado. Every thing proved to me that the number of birds i 

 resorting to this part of the forest must be immense beyond conception. j 

 As the period of their arrival approached, their foes anxiously prepared ' 

 to receive them. Some Avere furnished with iron-pots containing sulphur, 

 others with torches of pine-knots, many with poles, and the rest with 

 guns. The sun was lost to our view, yet not a Pigeon had arrived. 

 Every thing was ready, and all eyes were gazing on the clear sky, which 

 appeared in glimpses amidst the tall trees. Suddenly there burst forth 



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