PASSENGER PIGEON. j^g 



usually remain as late as December, feeding, when the ground 

 is covered with snow, on the buds of juniper. They spread 

 over the whole of Canada ; were seen by Captain Lewis and 

 his party near the Great Falls of the Missouri, upwards 

 of 2500 miles from its mouth, reckoning the meanderings 

 of the river ; were also met with in the interior of Louisiana 

 by Colonel Pike ; and extend their range as far south as the 

 Gulf of Mexico ; occasionally visiting or breeding in almost 

 every quarter of the United States. 



But the most remarkable characteristic of these birds is 

 their associating together, both in their migrations, and also 

 during the period of incubation, in such prodigious numbers 

 as almost to surpass belief, and which has no parallel among 

 any other of the feathered tribes on the face of the earth 

 with which naturalists are acquainted. 



These migrations appear to be undertaken rather in quest 

 of food, than merely to avoid the cold of the climate, since 

 we find them lingering in the northern regions, around 

 Hudson's Bay, so late as December ; and since their appear- 

 ance is so casual and irregular, sometimes not visiting certain 

 districts for several years in any considerable numbers, while 

 at other times t\\ey are innumerable. I have witnessed these 

 migrations in the Gennesee country, often in Pennsylvania, 

 and also in various parts of Virginia, with amazement; but 

 all that I had then seen of them were mere straggling parties 

 when compared with the congregated millions which I have 

 since beheld in our western forests, in the. States of Ohio, 

 Kentucky, and the Indiana territory. These fertile and ex- 

 tensive regions abound with the nutritious beech-nut, which 

 constitutes the chief food of the wild pigeon. In seasons 

 when these nuts are abundant, corresponding multitudes of 

 pigeons may be confidently 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 regularly 

 repair every morning, and return as regularly in the course of 



