The Passenger Pigeon 1 1 



the wild pigeon. In seasons when these nuts are abun- 

 dant, corresponding multitudes of pigeons may be confi- 

 dently expected. It sometimes happens that, having 

 consumed the whole produce of the beech trees, in an 

 extensive district, they discover another, at the distance 

 perhaps of sixty or eighty miles, to which they regu- 

 larly repair every morning, and return as regularly in 

 the course of the day, or in the evening, to their place of 

 general rendezvous, or as it is usually called, the roost- 

 ing place. These roosting places are always in the 

 woods, and sometimes occupy a large extent of forest. 

 When they have frequented one of these places for 

 some time the appearance it exhibits is surprising. The 

 ground is covered to the depth of several inches with 

 their dung; all the tender grass and underwood de- 

 stroyed; the surface strewed with large limbs of trees, 

 broken down by the weight of the birds clustering one 

 above another ; and the trees themselves, for thousands 

 of acres, killed as completely as if girdled with an ax. 

 The marks of this desolation remain for many years on 

 the spot; and numerous places could be pointed out, 

 where, for several years after, scarcely a single vegetable 

 made its appearance. 



When these roosts are first discovered, the inhabi- 

 tants, from considerable distances, visit them in the 

 night with guns, clubs, long poles, pots of sulphur, and 

 various other engines of destruction. In a few hours 

 they fill many sacks, and load their horses with them. 



