190 INSESSORES — CURSORES 



tent. In some instances they are so crowded upon 

 the branches, as to cause them to give way; and 

 when the young are fully fledged, and the place 

 finally deserted, so great has been the havoc and de- 

 struction they have caused, that what was before a 

 flourishing forest is converted into a wilderness of 

 dismantled trunks, every tree being as completely 

 destroyed as if girdled, and the whole ground cov- 

 ered with their excrements to the depth of several 

 inches. 



But it is during their migrations that they assem- 

 ble in the most astonishing multitudes. These mi- 

 grations are performed only for the purpose of ob- 

 taining food, and are not influenced by any changes 

 in temperature, or the desire to seek a more genial 

 climate. Such countless thousands of hungry birds 

 must of necessity soon deprive a large tract of land 

 of all its available resources ; hence the necessity of 

 their frequently changing their position. 



Audubon, speaking of one of these companies, 

 says : " In passing over the Barrens, a few miles 

 beyond Hardinsburg, I observed the Pigeons flying 

 from northeast to southwest, in greater numbers than 

 I thought I had ever seen them before ; and feeling 

 an inclination to count the flocks that might pass 

 within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, 

 seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark 

 with my pencil, making a dot for every flock that 

 passed. In a short time finding the task which 1 

 had undertaken impracticable, as the birds poured in 

 in countless multitudes, I rose, and counting the dots 



