As James Fenimore Cooper Saw It 45 



grave-looking Onondago, as he moved, still deeper and 

 deeper, into the midst of the fluttering tumult. 



" While standing wondering at the extraordinary 

 scene around us, a noise was heard rising above that of 

 the incessant fluttering which I can only liken to that 

 of the trampling of thousands of horses on a beaten 

 road. This noise at first sounded distant, but it in- 

 creased rapidly in proximity and power, until it came 

 rolling in upon us, among the tree-tops, like a crash of 

 thunder. The air was suddenly darkened, and the place 

 where we stood as somber as a dusky twilight. At the 

 same instant, all the pigeons near us, that had been on 

 their nests, appeared to fall out of them, and the space 

 immediately above our heads was at once filled with 

 birds. 



" Chaos itself could hardly have represented greater 

 confusion, or a greater uproar. As for the birds, they 

 now seemed to disregard our presence entirely; possi- 

 bly they could not see us on account of their own num- 

 bers, for they fluttered in between Dus and myself, hit- 

 ting us with their wings, and at times appearing as if 

 about to bury us in avalanches of pigeons. Each of us 

 caught one at least in our hands, while Chainbearer and 

 the Indian took them in some numbers, letting one pris- 

 oner go as another was taken. In a word, we seemed to 

 be in a world of pigeons. This part of the scene may 



