42 The Passenger Pigeon 



tain, were used to strike them to the earth. ... So 

 prodigious was the number of the birds, that the scatter- 

 ing fire of the guns, with the hurtling missiles, and the 

 cries of the boys, had no other effect than to break off 

 small flocks from the immense masses that continued to 

 dart along the valley, as if the whole of the feathered 

 tribe were pouring through that one pass. None pre- 

 tended to collect the game, which lay scattered over the 

 fields in such profusion as to cover the very ground with 

 the fluttering victims." 



The slaughter described finally ended with a grand 

 finale when an old swivel gun was " loaded with hands- 

 ful of bird-shot," and fired into the mass of pigeons 

 with such fatal effect that there were birds enough 

 killed and wounded on the ground to feed the whole 

 settlement. 



The following description is from " The Chain- 

 bearer," also by J. Fenimore Cooper. The region of 

 which he writes is in Central New York. 



" I scarce know how to describe the remarkable 

 scene. As we drew near to the summit of the hill, 

 pigeons began to be seen fluttering among the branches 

 over our heads, as individuals are met along the roads 

 that lead into the suburbs of a large town. We had 

 probably seen a thousand birds glancing around among 

 the trees, before we came in view of the roost itself. 

 The numbers increased as we drew nearer, and pres- 

 ently the forest was alive with them. 



