632 
PIGEON TRIBE. 
hours together the vast host, extending some miles in 
breadth, still continues to pass in flocks without diminution. 
The whole air is filled with them ; 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 concentrating 
mass, and heaving in undulating and glittering sweeps 
towards the earth, at length again proceed in lofty mean- 
ders like the rushing of a mighty animated river. 
But the Hawk is not their only enemy, tens of thorn 
sands 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 wither- 
ed leaves for their favorite mast ; those behind are con- 
tinually rising and passing forward in front, in such rap- 
id succession, that the whole flock, still circling over the 
ground, seem yet on the wing. 
As the sun begins to decline, they depart in a body 
for the general roost , which is often hundreds of miles 
distant, and is generally chosen in the tallest and thickest 
forests almost divested of underwood. Nothing can ex- 
ceed 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 re- 
gion for several years presents a continued scene of de- 
vastation, 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 bor- 
