PASSENGER PIGEON. 
199 
frequented one of these places for some time, the appearance 
it exhibits is surprising 1 . The ground is covered to the depth 
of several inches with their dung; all the tender grass and 
underwood destroyed; the surface strewed 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, scarcely 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 destruction. 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 dance 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, 
wherever the branches could accommodate them. The 
pigeons made their first appearance there about the 10th of 
April, and left it altogether, with their young, before the 
25th 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 
