296 
COLUMBA MIGRATOKIA. 
their wings roaring like thunder, mingled with the 
frequent crash of falling timber ; for now the axe-men 
were at work, cutting down those trees that seemed to 
be most crowded with nests, and contrived to fell them 
in such a manner, that, in their descent, they might 
bring down several others ; by which means the falling 
of one large tree sometimes produced two hundred 
squabs, little inferior in size to the old ones, and almost 
one mass of fat. On some single trees, upwards of one 
hundred nests were found, each containing one young 
only ; a circumstance, in the history of this bird, not 
generally known to naturalists. It was dangerous to 
walk under these flying and fluttering millions, from 
the frequent fall of large branches, broken down by 
the weight of the multitudes above, and which, in their 
descent, often destroyed numbers of the birds them- 
selves ; while the clothes of those engaged in traversing 
the woods were completely covered with the excre- 
ments of the pigeons. 
These circumstances were related to me by many of 
the most respectable part of the community in that 
quarter ; and were confirmed, in part, by what I myself 
witnessed. I passed for several miles through this 
same breeding place, where every tree was spotted 
with nests, the remains of those above described. In 
many instances, I counted upwards of ninety nests on 
a single tree ; but the pigeons had abandoned this 
place for another, sixty or eighty miles off towards 
Green river, where they were said at that time to be 
equally numerous. From the great numbers that were 
constantly passing over head to or from that quarter, I 
had no doubt of the truth of this statement. The mast 
had been chiefly consumed in Kentucky, and the 
pigeons, every morning a little before sunrise, set out 
for the Indiana territory, the nearest part of which was 
about sixty miles distant. Many of these returned 
before ten o’clock, and the great body generally appeared, 
on their return, a little after noon. 
I had left the public road to visit the remains of the 
breeding place near Shelbyville, and was traversing the 
