PASSENGER PIGEON. 



105 



pleasure^ while from twenty feet upwards to the tops of tlie trees 

 the view through the woods presented a perpetual tumult of crowd- 

 ing and fluttering multitudes of pigeons, their wings roaring like 

 thunder; mingled with the frequent crash of falling timber; for 

 now the axe-men were at work cutting down those trees that seem- 

 ed to be most crowded with nests, and contrived to fell them in 

 such a manner, that in their descent they might bring down seve- 

 ral others ; by which means the falling of one large tree sometimes 

 produced two hundred squabs, little inferior in size to the old ones, 

 and almost one mass of fat. On some single trees upwards of one 

 hundred nests were found, each containing one young only, a cir- 

 cumstance in the history of this bird not generally known to natu- 

 ralists. It was dangerous to walk under these flying and fluttering 

 millions, from the frequent fall of large branches, broken down by 

 the weight of the multitudes above, and which in their descent often 

 destroyed numbers of the birds themselves ; while the clothes of 

 those engaged in traversing the woods were completely covered 

 with the excrements of the Pigeons. 



These circumstances were related to me by many of the most 

 respectable part of the community in that quarter; and were con- 

 firmed in part by what I myself witnessed. I passed for several 

 miles through this same breeding place, where every tree was spot- 

 ted with nests, the remains of those above described. In many in- 

 stances I counted upwards of ninety nests on a single tree; but the 

 Pigeons had abandoned this place for another, sixty or eighty miles 

 oflF towards Green river, where they were said at that time to be 

 equally numerous. From the great numbers that were constantly 

 passing over head to or from that quarter, I had no doubt of the 

 truth of this statement. The mast had been chiefly consumed in 

 Kentucky, and the Pigeons, every morning a little before sun-rise, 

 set out for the Indiana territory, the nearest part of which was about 

 sixty miles distant. Many of these returned before ten o'clock, and 

 the great body generally appeared on their return a little after noon. 

 VOL. v. D d 



