266 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
sistence, by the means which its predatory habits natural- 
ly require, it no doubt, as in the case of those of the Zoo- 
logical gardens, become very fat and subject to disease. 
This wolf is the same in habit as the other species; and 
the whole genus, besides being tbe greatest nightly de- 
predators, will, during the season of darkness, remain 
longer on foot in a state of activity than all other animals; 
the consequence is, that being led by its exceeding desire 
for food, it will travel over extensive countries, and must, 
in the very nature of the case, be poor and gaunt. 
It is designed to enter more particularly into the his- 
tory and habits of the Wolf, when these become neces- 
sary under the head of The Brown Wolf, at which time 
every peculiarity of the animal will be given, with many 
illustrative anecdotes. 
FLOCKS OF WILD PIGEONS. 
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 cli- 
mate, since we find them lingering in the northern re- 
gions around Hudson’s Bay so late as December; and 
since their appearance is so casual and irregular; some- 
times not visiting certain districts for several years in any 
considerable numbers, while at other times they are in- 
numerable. I have witnessed these migrations in the 
Genessee country — often in Pennsylvania, and also in va- 
rious 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 
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 mul- 
titudes of Pigeons may be confidently expected. It some- 
times 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 regu- 
larly in the course of the day, or in the evening, to their 
place of general rendezvous, or as it is usually called, the 
roosting jAace. 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 surprising. The ground 
is covered to the depth of several inches with their dung; 
all the tender grass and underwood destroyed; the sur- 
face 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 ascom- 
pletely as if girdled with an axe. The marks of this deso- 
lation remain for many years on the spot; and numerous 
places could be pointed out, where, for several years after, 
scarce 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 impor- 
tant source of national profit and dependence for that sea- 
son; and all their active ingenuity is exercised on the oc- 
casion. The breeding jAace differs from the former in 
its greater extent. In the western countries above men- 
tioned, these are generally in beech woods, and often ex- 
tend 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 
Pi geons 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 ithmense nursery. Several of them 
informed me, that the noise in the woods was so great as 
to terrify their horses, and that it was difficult for one 
person to hear another speak without bawling in his ear. 
The ground was strewed with broken limbs ot trees, eggs, 
and squab Pigeons, which had been precipitated from 
above, and on which herds of hogs were fattening. 
Hawks, buzzards, and eagles, were sailing about in great 
numbers, and seizing the squabs from their nests at plea- 
sure; while from twenty feet upwards to the tops of the 
trees the view through the woods presented a perpetual 
tumult of crowding and fluttering multitudes of Pigeons, 
