PASSENGER PIGEON. 



33 



Now this sounds fabulous, but we will not dispute its truth, al- 

 though it is not in accordance with our observations. We have in our 

 rambles through the United States frequently met even with very 

 large flocks, but they certainly did not reach to one-quarter the 

 number mentioned by Audubon. Several roosts were visited at 

 different places, but they fell considerably short of the above ac- 

 count, although persons with whom we conversed at these roosts 

 full}'- corroborated Audubon. The immense numbers of Wild 

 Pigeons that flew over my head toward the roost would appear al- 

 most incredible to those who have never observed it. As regards 

 the rapidity of the flight of the Passenger Pigeons, we relate an 

 incident that occurred in the spring of 1849, in New York city. 

 About two dozen Wild Pigeons, who had their crops filled with rice, 

 were shot by me, and they certainly had only early that morning 

 fed in the rice-fields of Carolina. It was about 10 130 a. m. when 

 they were shot, but they appeared tired, and did not show their 

 usual shyness. 



Dr. Geo. W. Hill, of Ashland, Ohio, in one of his contribu- 

 tions, "Recollections of Pioneer Life," to the Cincinnati Com- 

 mercial, relates the following incident about the Wild Pigeon, the 

 particulars for which were furnished by William A. Adams, Esq. : 



"Several species of birds, formerly very numerous in this State, 

 are becoming less abundant. The Wild Pigeon, once seen in count- 

 less millions, is not so numerous as during the period of the beech- 

 nuts. Mr. Adams, in 1806, witnessed at Marietta, Ohio, a flight 

 of pigeons so remarkable that the school children were dismissed 

 to see the wonderful sight. They were actually so numerous as to 

 obscure the light of the sun like a cloud. This continued for some 

 time. The sand-bar at the foot of the island above Marietta con- 

 tained about fifty acres of land. Far above the island the birds 

 checked their flight, and began to descend upon the bar in a dense 

 mass. The descent, at a distance, appeared like an inverted cone, 

 or an enormous water-spout, as an old sailor describes it. The 

 birds apparently came down to the bar for water and sand. They 

 crowded the shore, and dipped their beaks into the water, and took 

 to the air again, and continued their flight. The whole town 

 turned out to witness the novel spectacle, and many persons 

 hastened to the sand-bar, and large numbers of the birds were 

 killed with sticks. Their crops were supplied with small gravel 

 and sand. Their roosts were equally strange. They came 

 together from all quarters in such numbers that it was dangerous 

 for mail or animal to venture beneath their roost. The noise of 

 their wings, their fluttering, and the cracking of timber beneath 

 their weight, kept up a constant roar, not unlike the sound of 

 battle at a distance. There is a tract of land in the northwest part 

 of Muskingum county, formerly called ' Dennison's Plains,' rich 

 and rolling, but destitute of timber. There was full proof that the 

 timber on that land had once been a pigeon-roost, and had been 

 broken down and destroyed by the weight of the pigeons. This 

 was confirmed by some Indians who were on the land about 1813. 

 The nestings of these birds were equally strange and curious. 

 The nests were fixed on the top of horizontal limbs, and some- 

 times from fifty to one hundred were placed thereon. Here the 

 young were hatched. When partially grown, their weight would 

 frequently crush the limb, and vast numbers of squabs would fall 

 down to become the prey of hawks, owls, foxes, men, and boys. 

 The young squabs were fat, and esteemed a luxury for the table." 



The following additional account of this remarkable bird is taken 

 from the w .rk entitled "Wilson's American Ornithology," Thomas 

 M. Brewer, editor : 



"The Wild Pigeon of the United States inhabits a wide ar-t 

 extensive region of North America, on the side of the great Stony 

 Mountains, beyond which, to the westward, I have not heard of 

 their being seen. According to Mr. Hutchins, they abound in the 

 country round Hudson's Bay, where they usually remain as late 

 as December, feeding, when the ground is covered with snow, on 

 the buds of the juniper. They spread over the whole of Canada ; 

 were seen by Captain Lewis and his party near the Great Falls of 



the Missouri, upward of 2,500 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 appearance is so casual 

 and irregular, sometimes not visiting certain districts for several 

 years in any considerable numbers, while at other times they are 

 innumerable. I have witnessed these migrations in the Genesee 

 country, often in Pennsylvania, and also in various parts of Vir- 

 ginia, with amazement ; but all 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 Indian Territory. These fertile and 

 extensive 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 con- 

 sumed the whole produce of the beech-trees in an extensive dis- 

 trict, 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 the day, or in the evening, to their 

 place of general rendezvous, or, as it is usually called, the roosting- 

 place. These roosting-places are always in the woods, and some- 

 times occupy a large extent of forest. When they have frequented 

 one of these places for some time, the appearance it exhibits is 

 surprising. The ground is covered to the depth of several inches 

 with their dung ; all the tender grass and underwood destroyed ; 

 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 ax. 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 discovered, the inhabitants, from con- 

 siderable 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 con- 

 sidered 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 gen- 

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

 across the country for a great way. Not far from Shelby ville, 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. It was several miles in breadth, and was 

 said to be upward 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 parts of the 

 adjacent country, came with wagons, axes, beds, cooking-utensils, 

 many of them accompanied by the greater part of their families, 

 and encamped for several days at this immense nursery. Several 

 of them informed me that the noise in the woods was so great as 



