30 THE PASSENGER PIGEON. 



for the next morning's employment. The Pigeons were constantly coming, 

 and it was past midnight before I perceived a decrease in the number of 

 those that arrived. The uproar continued the whole night; and as I was 

 anxious to know to what distance the sound reached, I sent off a man, 

 accustomed to perambulate the forest, who, returning two hours afterwards, 

 informed me he had heard it distinctly when three miles distant from the 

 spot. Towards the approach of day, the noise in some measure subsided: 

 long before objects were distinguishable, the Pigeons began to move off in a 

 direction quite different from that in which they had arrived the evening 

 before, and at sunrise all that were able to fly had disappeared. The 

 howlings of the wolves now reached our ears, and the foxes, lynxes, cougars, 

 bears, racoons, opossums and pole-cats were seen sneaking off, whilst eagles 

 and hawks of different species, accompanied by a crowd of vultures, came to 

 supplant them, and enjoy their share of the spoil. 



It was then that the authors of all this devastation began their entry 

 amongst the dead, the dying, and the mangled. The Pigeons were picked 

 up and piled in heaps, until each had as many as he could possibly dispose 

 of, when the hogs were let loose to feed on the remainder. 



Persons unacquainted with these birds might naturally conclude that such 

 dreadful havoc would soon put an end to the species. But I have satisfied 

 myself, by long observation, that nothing but the gradual diminution of our 

 forests can accomplish their decrease, as they not unfrequently quadruple 

 their numbers yearly, and always at least double it. In 1805 I saw 

 schooners loaded in bulk with Pigeons caught up the Hudson river, coming 

 in to the wharf at New York, when the birds sold for a cent a piece. I 

 knew a man in Pennsylvania, who caught and killed upwards of 500 dozens 

 in a clap-net in one day, sweeping sometimes twenty dozens or more at a 

 single haul. In the month of March IS 30, they were so abundant in the 

 markets of New York, that piles of them met the eye in every direction. I 

 have seen the Negroes at the United States' Salines or Saltworks of 

 Shawanee Town, wearied with killing Pigeons, as they alighted to drink the 

 water issuing from the leading pipes, for weeks at a time; and yet in 1826, 

 in Louisiana, I saw congregated flocks of these birds as numerous as ever I 

 had seen them before, during a residence of nearly thirty years in the 

 United States. 



The breeding of the Wild Pigeons, and the places chosen for that 

 purpose, are points of great interest. The time is not much influenced by 

 season, and the place selected is where food is most plentiful and most 

 attainable, and always at a convenient distance from water. Forest-trees 

 of great height are those in which the Pigeons form their nests. Thither 

 the countless myriads resort, and prepare to fulfil one of the great laws 



