]98 
PASSENGER PIGEON. 
upwards of 2500 miles from its mouth, reckoning the 
meanderings of the river ; were also met with in the interior 
of Louisiana by Colonel Pike ; and extend their range as 
far south as the Gulf of Mexico; occasionally visiting or 
breeding in almost every quarter of the United States. 
But 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 climate; since 
we find them lingering in the northern regions, around 
Hudson’s Bay, so late as December ; and, since their appear- 
ance is so casual and irregular, sometimes not visiting certain 
districts for several years in any considerable numbers, while 
at other times they are innumerable. I have witnessed these 
migrations in the Gennesee country, often in Pennsylvania, 
and also in various 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 multi- 
tudes of Pigeons may be confidently expected. It sometimes 
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 regularly in 
the course of the day, or in the evening, to their place of 
general rendezvous, or, as it is usually called, the roosting 
place. These roosting places are always in the woods, and 
sometimes occupy a large extent of forest. When they have 
