THE WILD PIGEOSr. 231 



swarmed in the hotels, post office, and about the streets. 

 They were there, as careful inquiry and the hotel regis- 

 ters showed, from New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, 

 Michigan, Maryland, Iowa, Virginia, Ohio, Texas, Illi- 

 nois, Maine, Minnesota, and Missouri. 



' ' Hiring a team, we started on a tour of investigation 

 through the nesting. Long before reaching it, our course 

 was directed by the birds over our heads, flying back 

 and forth to their feeding-grounds. After riding about 

 fifteen miles, we discovered a wagon-track leading into 

 the woods, in the direction of the bird-sounds which came 

 to our ears. Three of the party left the wagon and fol- 

 lowed it; the twittering grew louder and louder, the 

 birds more numerous, and, in a few minutes, we were in 

 the midst of that marvel of the forest, and Nature's won- 

 derland — the pigeon-nesting. We stood and gazed in 

 bewilderment upon the scene around and above us. Was 

 it indeed a fairy-land we stood upon, or did our eyes 

 deceive us? On every hand the eye would meet these 

 graceful creatures of the forest, which, in their delicate 

 robes of blue, purple, and brown, darted hither and 

 thither with the quickness of thought. Every bough was 

 bending under their weight, so tame one could almost 

 touch them, while in every direction, crossing and 

 recrossing, the flying birds drew a net-work before the 

 dizzy eyes of the beholder, until he fain would close his 

 eyes to shut out the bewildering scene. This portion of 

 the nesting was the first formed, and the young birds 

 were just ready to leave the nests. Scarcely a tree could 

 be seen but contained from five to fifty nests, according 

 to its size and branches. Directed by the noise of chop- 

 ping and falling trees, we followed on, and soon came 

 upon the scene of action. Here was a large force of 

 Indians and boys at work, slashing down the timbdr, and 

 seizing the young birds as they fluttered from the nests. 



