PASSENGER PIGEON 



107 



not being yet out I had a fair prospect of them, and was really 

 astonished at their numbers. A few bodies of Pigeons lingered 

 yet in different parts of the woods, the roaring of whose wings w ere 

 heard in various quarters around me. 



All accounts agree in stating, that each nest contains only one 

 young squab. These are so extremely fat, that the Indians, and 

 many of the whites, are accustomed to melt down the fat for do- 

 mestic purposes as a substitute for butter and lard. At the time 

 they leave the nest they are nearly as heavy as the old ones; but 

 become much leaner after they are turned out to shift for them^ 

 selves. 



It is universally asserted in the western countries that the 

 Pigeons, tho they have only one young at a time, breed thrice 

 and sometimes four times in the same season; the circumstances 

 already mentioned render this highly probable. It is also worthy 

 of observation, that this takes place during that period when acorns, 

 beech nuts, &c. are scattered about in the greatest abundance and 

 mellowed by the frost. But they are not confined to these alone ; 

 buckwheat, hempseed, Indian corn, holly berries, hack berries, 

 buckle berries, and many others furnish them with abundance at 

 almost all seasons. The acorns of the live oak are also eagerly 

 sought after by these birds, and rice has been frequently found in in- 

 dividuals killed many hundred miles to the northward of the nearest 

 rice plantation. The vast quantity of mast which these multitudes 

 consume is a serious loss to the bears, pigs, squirrels and other de- 

 pendants on the fruits of the forest. I have taken from the crop 

 of a single Wild Pigeon, a good handful of the kernels of beech 

 nuts, intermixed with acorns and chesnuts. To form a rough es- 

 timate of the daily consumption of one of these immense flocks, let 

 us first attempt to calculate the numbers of that above mentioned 

 as seen in passing between Frankfort and the Indiana territory. If 

 we suppose this column to have been one mile in breadth (and I 

 believe it to have been much more) and that it moved at the rate 



