mazement; but
all that I have seen of them are mere straggling parties, when compared
with the congregated millions which I have since beheld in the western
forests in the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and the Indiana territory.
These fertile and extensive regions abound with the nutritious 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 of perhaps 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 generally called, the roosting place. These roosting places are
always in the wood, 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 droppings; 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 thousand 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 dependence for the 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
before 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 Shelbyville, 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, which was several miles in breadth,