come
simultaneously into view, and anon suddenly presenting a mass of rich,
deep purple.

7. They then pass lower, over the woods, and for a moment are lost among
the foliage, but again emerge, and are seen gliding aloft. They now
alight; but the next moment, as if suddenly alarmed, they take to wing,
producing by the flappings of their wings a noise like the roar of distant
thunder, and sweep through the forests to see if danger is near. Hunger,
however, soon brings them to the ground.

8. When alighted, they are seen industriously throwing up the withered
leaves in quest of the fallen mast. The rear ranks are continually rising,
passing over the main body, and alighting in front, in such rapid
succession, that the whole flock seems still on wing. The quantity of
ground thus swept is astonishing; and so completely has it been cleared
that the gleaner who might follow in their rear would find his labor
completely lost.

9. On such occasions, when the woods are filled with these pigeons, they
are killed in immense numbers, although no apparent diminution ensues.
About the middle of the day, after their repast is finished, they settle
on the trees to enjoy rest and digest their food. As the sun begins to
sink beneath the horizon; they depart en masse for the roosting place,
which not unfrequently is hundreds of miles distant, as has been
ascertained by persons who have kept an account of their arrivals and
departures.

10. Let us now inspect their place of nightly rendezvous. One of these
curious roosting places, on the banks of the Green River, in Kentucky, I
repeatedly visited. It was, as is always the case, in a portion of the
forest where the trees were of great magnitude, and where there was little
underwood. I rode through it upwards of forty miles, and, crossing it in
different parts, found its average breadth to be rather more than three
miles. My first view of it was about a fortnight subsequent to the period
when they had made choice of it, and I arrived there nearly two hours
before sunset.

11. Many trees, two feet in diameter, I observed, were broken off at no
great distance from the ground; and the branches of many of the largest
and tallest had given way, as if the forest had been swept by a tornado.
Everything proved to me that the number of birds resorting to this part of
the forest must be immense beyond conception.

12. As the period of their arrival approached, their foes anxiously
prepared to