PASSENGEK PIGEON. 
3 
all the tender grass and underwood destroyed; the surface strew- 
ed 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 as completely as if girdled with 
an axe. The marks of this desolation 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 destruc- 
tion. 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 important source of national profit and depen- 
dence for that season; and all their active ingenuity is exercised 
on the occasion. The breeding place differs from the former in 
its greater extent. In the western countries above mentioned, 
these are generally in beech woods, and often extend in nearly 
a straight line across the country for a great way. Not far from 
Shelby ville 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, wher- 
ever the branches could accommodate them. The Pigeons 
made their first appearance there about the tenth of April, and 
left it altogether, with their young, before the twenty-fifth 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 immense 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 bawliilg in his ear. 
The ground was strewed with broken limbs of trees, eggs, and 
