34 



PASSENGER PIGEON. 



to terrify their horses, and that it was difficult for one person to 

 hear another speak without bawling in his ear. The ground was 

 strewed with broken limbs of trees, eggs, and young squab 

 Pigeons, which had been precipitated from above, and on which 

 herds of hogs were fattening. Hawks, Buzzards, and Eagles 

 were sailing about in great numbers, and seizing the squabs from 

 their nests at pleasure ; while from twenty feet upward to the tops 

 of the trees, the view through the woods presented a perpetual 

 tumult of crowding and fluttering multitudes of Pigeons, their 

 wings roaring like thunder, mingled with the frequent crash of 

 falling timber ; for now the ax-men were at work, cutting down 

 those trees that seemed to be most crowded with nests, and con- 

 tinued to fell them in such a manner that, in their descent, they 

 might bring down several others ; by which means the falling of 

 one large tree sometimes murdered two hundred squabs, little 

 inferior in size to the old ones, and almost one mass of fat. On 

 some single trees, upward of one hundred nests were found, each 

 containing one young only — a circumstance, in the history of this 

 bird, not generally known to naturalists. It was dangerous to 

 walk under these flying and fluttering millions, from the frequent 

 fall of large branches, broken down by the weight of the multitudes 

 above, and which, in their descent, often destroyed numbers of the 

 birds themselves ; while the clothes of those engaged in traversing 

 the woods were completely covered with the excrements of the 

 Pigeons. 



" These circumstances were related to me by many of the most 

 respectable people of the community in that quarter, and were 

 confirmed in part by what I myself witnessed. I passed for sev- 

 eral miles through this same breeding-place, when every tree was 

 spotted with nests, the remains of those above described. In many 

 instances I counted upward of ninety nests on a single tree ; but 

 the Pigeons had abandoned this place for another, sixty or eighty 

 miles ofF, toward Green river, where they were said at that time 

 to be equally numerous. From the great numbers that were con- 

 stantly passing overhead to or from that quarter, I had no doubt 

 of the truth of this statement. - The mast had been chiefly con- 

 sumed in Kentucky, and the Pigeons, every morning a little before 

 sunrise, set out for the Indian Territory, the nearest part of which 

 was about sixty miles distant. Many of these returned before ten 

 o'clock, and the great body generally appeared, on their return, a 

 little after noon. 



" I had left the public road to visit the remains of the breeding- 

 place near Shelbyville, and was traversing the woods with my gun, 

 on my way to Frankfort, when, about one o'clock, the Pigeons, 

 which I had observed flying the greater part of the morning north- 

 erly, began to return in such immense numbers as I never before 

 had witnessed. Coming to an opening by the side of a creek called 

 the Benson, where I had a more uninterrupted view, I was aston- 

 ished at their appearance. They were flying, with great steadiness 

 and rapidity, at a height beyond gunshot, in several strata deep, 

 and so close together that, could shot have reached them, one 

 discharge could not have failed to bring down several individuals. 

 From right to left, far as the eye could reach, the breadth of this 

 vast procession extended, seeming everywhere equally crowded. 

 Curious to determine how long this appearance would continue, I 

 took out my watch to note the time, and sat down to observe them. 

 It was then half-past one. I sat for more than an hour, but instead 

 of a dimunition of this prodigious procession, it seemed rather to 

 increase both in numbers and rapidity; and, anxious to reach 

 Frankfort before night, I rose and went on. About four o'clock 

 in the afternoon I crossed the Kentucky river, at the town of 

 Frankfort, at which time the living torrent above my head seemed 

 as numerous and as extensive as ever. Long after this, I observed 

 them, in large bodies, that continued to pass for six or eight 

 minutes, and then again were followed by other detached bodies, 

 all moving in the same southeast direction, till after six in the 

 evening. The great breadth of front which this mighty multitude 

 preserved would seem to intimate a corresponding breadth of their 



breeding-place, which, by several gentlemen who had lately passed 

 through part of it, was stated to me at several miles. It was said 

 to be in Green county, and that the young began to fly about the 

 middle of March. On the 17th of April, forty-nine miles beyond 

 Danville, and not far from Green river, I crossed this same 

 breeding-place, where the nests, for more than three miles, spotted 

 every tree. The leaves not being yet out, I had a fair prospect of 

 them, and was really astonished at their numbers. A few bodies 

 of Pigeons lingered yet in different parts of the woods, the roaring 

 of whose wings was heard in various quarters around me. 



"All accounts agree in stating that each nest contains only one 

 young squab. These are so extremely fat that the Indians, and 

 many of the whites, are accustomed to melt down the fat for 

 domestic purposes, as a sul stitute for butter and lard. At the time 

 they leave the nest, they are nearly as heavy as the old one, but 

 become much leaner after they are turned out to shift for them- 

 selves. 



"It is universally asserted in the Western countries, that the 

 Pigeons, though they have only one young at a time, breed thrice, 

 and sometimes four times, in the same season : the circumstances 

 already mentioned render this highly probable. It is also worthy 

 of observation, that this takes place during the period when acorns, 

 beech-nuts, etc., are scattered about in the greatest abundance, and 

 mellowed by the frost. But they are not confined to these alone — 

 buckwheat, hempseed, Indian corn, hollyberrries, blackberries, 

 huckleberries, and many others, furnish them with abundance at 

 almost all seasons. The acorns of the live-oak are also eagerly 

 sought after by these birds, and rice has been frequently found in 

 individuals killed many hundred miles to the northward of the 

 nearest plantation. The vast quantity of mast which these multi- 

 tudes consume is a serious loss to the bears, pigs, squirrels, and 

 other dependents on the fruits of the forest. I have taken from 

 the crop of a single Wild Pigeon a good handful of the kernels of 

 beech-nuts, intermixed with acorns and chestnuts. To form a 

 rough estimate of the daily consumption of one of these immense 

 flocks, let us first attempt to calculate the numbers of that above 

 mentioned, as seen in passing between Frankfort and the Indian 

 Territory : If we suppose this column to have been one mile in 

 breadth (and I believe it to have been much more), and that it 

 moved at the rate of one mile in a minute, four hours, the time it 

 continued passing, would make its whole length two hundred and 

 forty miles. Again, supposing that each square yard of this 

 moving body comprehended three Pigeons, the square yards in 

 the whole space, multiplied by three, would give two thousand 

 two hundred and thirty million two hundred and seventy-two 

 thousand Pigeons — an almost inconceivable multitude, and yet 

 probably far below the actual amount. Computing each of these 

 to consume half a pint of mast daily, the whole quantity at this 

 rate would equal seventeen million four hundred and twenty-four 

 thousand bushels per day ! Heaven has wisely and graciously 

 given to these birds rapidity of flight and a disposition to range 

 over vast uncultivated tracts of the earth ; otherwise they must 

 have perished in the districts where they resided, or devoured 

 the whole productions of agriculture, as well as those of the 

 forests. 



" A few observations on the mode of the flight of these birds 

 must not be omitted. The appearance of large detached bodies 

 of them in the air, and the various evolutions they display, are 

 strikingly picturesque and interesting. In descending the Ohio by 

 myself, in the month of February, I often rested on my oars to 

 contemplate their aerial maneuvers. A column, eight or ten miles 

 in length, would appear from Kentucky, high in the air, steering 

 across to Indiana. The leaders of this great body would some- 

 times gradually vary their course until it formed a large bend of 

 more than a mile in diameter, those behind tracing the exact route 

 of their predecessors. This would continue sometimes long after 

 both extremities were beyond the reach of sight ; so that the whole, 

 with its glittering undulations, marked a span on the face of the 



