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COLUMBA MIGRATOR I A. 
These migrations appear to he 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 appearance 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 ; hut 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 
nutricious beech nut, which constitutes the chief food 
of the wild pigeon. In seasons when these nuts are 
abundant, corresponding multitudes 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 frequented one of these places 
for some time, the appearance it exhibits is surprising. 
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, scarce a 
single vegetable made its appearance. 
When these roosts are first discovered, the inhabitants 
