200 PASSENGER PIGEON. 



the day, or in the evening, to their place of general rendez- 

 vous, or, as it is usually called, the roosting 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 sur- 

 prising. 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 axe. 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 inhabitants, 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. By the Indians, a pigeon roost 

 or breeding place is considered an important source of 

 national profit and dependence for that season, and all their 

 active ingenuity is exercised on the occasion. The breeding 

 place differs from the former in its greater extent. In the 

 western countries above mentioned, these are generally in 

 beech woods, and often extend, in nearly a straight line, 

 across the country for a great way. Not far from Shelbyville, 

 in the State of Kentucky, about five years ago, there was one 

 of these breeding places, which stretched through the woods 

 in nearly a north and south direction ; was several miles in 

 breadth, and was said to be upwards of forty miles in extent ! 

 In this tract, almost every tree was furnished with nests, 

 wherever the branches could accommodate them. The pigeons 

 made their first appearance there about the 10th of April, and 

 left it altogether, with their young, before the 25th of May. 



As soon as the young were fully grown, and before they 

 left the nests, numerous parties of the inhabitants, from all 



