296 
COLUMBA MIGRATORIA. 
their wings roaring like thunder, mingled with the 
frequent crash of falling timber ; for now the axe-me® 
were at work, cutting down those trees that seemed to 
he most crowded with nests, and contrived to fell then* 
in such a manner, that, in their descent, they raigh* : 
bring down several others ; by which means the fallin? ' 
of one larye tree sometimes produced t*vo hundre® ^ 
squabs, little inferior in size to the old ones, and almost j 
one mass of fat. On some single trees, upwards of ono | 
hundred nests were found, each containing one younj 
only ; a circumstance, in the hi.story of this bird, not 
generally kzjown to naturalists. It was dangerous to 
walk under these Hying and fluttering millions, fro*** 
the frezpient fall of large branches, broken down bV 
the weight of the multitudes above, and which, in fbei*' 
descent, often destroyed numbers of the birds them' 
selves ; while the clothes of those engaged in traversi**? 
the woods were completely covered with the escrO' 
monts of the pigeons. 
These circumstances were related to me by many of 
the most respectable part of the community in tha^ 
quarter; and were confirmed, in ])art, by what I mysoj* 
witnessed. I passed for several miles through tb:*' 
same breeding place, where every tree uas 'spotte'l 
with nests, the remains of those above described. I® 
many instances, I counted upwards of ninety nests o" 
a single tree; but the iiigeons had abandoned thi!* 
place for another, sixty or eighty miles off toward* 
Green river, where they were said at that time to be 
equally numerous. From the great numbers that wet® 
constantly passing over head to or from that quarter, I 
had no doubt of the tenth of this statement. The roast 
bad been chiefly consumed in Kentucky, and tb® 
pigeons, every morning a little before snnnse, set oiit 
for the Indiana territory, the nearest part of n hich n'a* 
about sixty miles distant. Many of these return®® 
before ten o’clock,and the great bodygenerallyappearem 
on their return, a little after noon. 
I had left the public road to visit the remains of tb® 
breeding place near Shelby ville, and was traversing tb® 
