PASSENGER PIGEON. 
477 
side ; then the persons in the hut pull the stale 
pigeons, when the birds will alight in vast numbers 
on the poles, and great multitudes are shot. Sir 
William Johnson told me, that he killed at one 
shot, with a blunderbuss, a hundred and twenty or 
thirty. Some years past they have not been in such 
plenty as they used to be. This spring I saw them 
fly one morning, as I thought in great abundance ; 
but every body was amazed how few there were, 
and wondered at the reason. 
£f I must remark one very singular fact ; that, 
notwithstanding the whole people of the town go 
out a-pigeoning, as they call it, they will not on 
some days kill a single hen bird ; and on the very 
next day not a single cock, and yet both sexes al- 
ways fly westerly ; and when this is the case, the peo- 
ple are always assured that there will be great plenty 
of them that season. I have been at Niagara when 
the sentinel has given the word that the pigeons 
were flying ; and the whole garrison were ready to 
run over one another, so eager were they to get 
fresh meat.” 
This account is strengthened by others, who tell 
us that their numbers exceed belief ; that in Penn- 
sylvania the inhabitants kill them from their balco- 
nies and the tops of their houses, and that even the 
limbs of stout oaks are often broken oft' by their 
weight when they perch on them in crowds in order 
to roost. They are taken, when settled for the 
night, by a very easy process. A large vessel filled 
with burning sulphur is placed under the trees, and 
