OUR HOME BIRDS. 
219 
“In these regions the pigeons move in such im- 
mense flocks that a traveller on the Ohio River hap- 
pening, as he says, to go ashore one charming after- 
noon, stopped at a house that stood near the river, 
and while talking with the people within doors was 
suddenly struck with astonishment at a loud rushing 
roar, succeeded by instant darkness, which at the first 
moment he took for a tornado about to overwhelm the 
house and everything around in destruction. ‘ The 
people,’ he continues, 4 observing my surprise, coolly 
said, “ It is only the pigeons and on running out I 
beheld a flock, thirty or forty yards in width, sweep- 
ing along very low between the house and the moun- 
tain or height that formed the second bank of the 
river. These continued passing for more than a 
quarter of an hour, and at length varied their bear- 
ing so as to pass over the mountain, behind which 
they disappeared before the rear came up/ 
“The Carolina pigeon, or turtle-dove (Fig. 19), is 
a smaller variety, measuring only twelve inches, but 
its dress is very much the same. In early spring 
‘ we hear from the budding trees of the forest or the 
already blooming thicket the mournful call of the 
turtle-dove, commencing, as it were, with a low 
and plaintive sigh, repeated at impressive intervals of 
half a minute, and heard distinctly to a considerable 
distance through the still, balmy air of the reviving 
