4 
PIGEON TRIBE. 
with birds ; their muting resembles a shower of sleet, and they 
shut out the light as if it were an eclipse. At the approach of 
the Hawk their sublime and beautiful aerial evolutions are 
disturbed like the ruffling squall extending over the placid 
ocean ; as a thundering torrent they rush together in a concen- 
trating mass, and heaving in undulating and glittering sweeps 
towards the earth, at length again proceed in lofty meanders 
like the rushing of a mighty animated river. 
But the Hawk is not their only enemy : tens of thousands 
are killed in various ways by all the inhabitants far and near. 
The evolutions of the feeding Pigeons as they circle round are 
both beautiful and amusing. Alighting, they industriously 
search through the withered leaves for their favorite mast; 
those behind are continually rising and passing forward in 
front, in such rapid succession that the \yhole flock, still cir- 
cling over the ground, seem yet on the wing. 
As the sun begins to decline, they depart in a body for the 
^CTiCTul Toost^ which is often hundreds of miles distant, and is 
generally chosen in the tallest and thickest forests, almost 
divested of underwood. Nothing can exceed the waste and 
desolation of these nocturnal resorts ; the vegetation becomes 
buried by their excrements to the depth of several inches. 
The tall trees for thousands of acres are completely killed, and 
the ground strewed with massy branches torn down by the 
clustering weight of the birds which have rested upon them. 
The whole region for several years presents a continued scene 
of devastation, as if swept by the resistless blast of a whirlwind. 
The Honorable T. H. Perkins informs me that he has seen one 
of these desolated roosting-grounds on the borders of Lake 
Champlain in New York, and that the forest to a great extent 
presented a scene of total ruin. 
The breeding-places, as might naturally be expected, differ 
from the roosts in their greater extent. In 1807, according to 
Wilson, one of these immense nurseries, near Shelbyville in 
Kentucky, was several miles in breadth and extended through 
the woods for upwards of forty miles. After occupying this 
situation for a succession of seasons they at length abandoned 
