A STORY FROM AUDUBON [4]
“Here is what we are told on this subject by the celebrated
ornithologist, Audubon, whom I have already quoted in describing to you
the habits of the turkey as it is found in its free state in the great
forests of its native land.
“‘The passenger pigeon, or, as it is usually named in America, the wild
pigeon, moves with extreme rapidity, propelling itself by quickly
repeated flaps of the wing, which it brings more or less near the body,
according to the degree of velocity which is required....
“‘This great power of flight is seconded by as great a power of vision,
which enables them, as they travel at that swift rate, to inspect the
country below, discover their food with facility, and thus obtain the
object for which their journey has been undertaken. This I have also
proved to be the case, by having observed them, when passing over a
sterile part of the country, or one scantily furnished with food suited
to them, keep high in the air, flying with an extended front, so as to
enable them to survey hundreds of acres at once. On the contrary, when
the land is richly covered with food, or the trees abundantly hung with
mast, they fly low, in order to discover the part most plentifully
supplied....
“‘The multitudes of wild pigeons in our woods are astonishing. Indeed,
after having viewed them so often, and under so many circumstances, I
even now feel inclined to pause, and assure myself that what I am going
to relate is fact. Yet I have seen it all, and that too in the company
of persons who, like myself, were struck with amazement.
“‘In the autumn of 1813, I left my house at Henderson, on the banks of
the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over the Barrens a few
miles beyond Hardensburgh, I observed the pigeons flying from northeast
to southwest, in greater number than I thought I had ever seen them
before, and feeling an inclination to count the flocks that might pass
within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, seated myself on
an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making a dot for every
flock that passed. In a short time finding the task which I had
undertaken impracticable, as the birds poured in in countless
multitudes, I rose, and counting the dots then put down, found that one
hundred and sixty-three had been made in twenty-one minutes. I traveled
on, and still met more the farther I proceeded. The air was literally
filled with pigeons; the light of noonday was obscured as by an
eclipse; the dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow; and
the continued buzz of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose.
“‘Whilst waiting for dinner at Young’s inn, at the confluence of Salt
River with the Ohio, I saw, at my leisure, immense legions still going
by, with a front reaching from beyond the Ohio on the west, and the
beech-wood forests directly on the east of me. Not a single bird
alighted, for not a nut or acorn was that year to be seen in the
neighborhood. They consequently flew so high, that different trials to
reach them with a capital rifle proved ineffectual; nor did the reports
disturb them in the least. I cannot describe to you the extreme beauty
of their aërial evolutions, when a hawk chanced to press upon the rear
of a flock. At once, like a torrent, and with a noise like thunder,
they rushed into a compact mass, pressing upon each other toward the
center. In these almost solid masses, they darted forward in undulating
and angular lines, descended and swept close over the earth with
inconceivable velocity, mounted perpendicularly so as to resemble a
vast column, and, when high, were seen wheeling and twisting within
their continued lines, which then resembled the coils of a gigantic
serpent.
“‘Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from Hardensburgh
fifty-five miles. The pigeons were still passing in undiminished
numbers, and continued to do so for three days in succession. The
people were all in arms. The banks of the Ohio were crowded with men
and boys, incessantly shooting at the pilgrims, which there flew lower
as they passed the river. Multitudes were thus destroyed. For a week or
more, the population fed on no other flesh than that of pigeons, and
talked of nothing but pigeons. The atmosphere, during this time, was
strongly impregnated with the peculiar odor which emanates from the
species....
“‘It may not, perhaps, be out of place to attempt an estimate of the
number of pigeons contained in one of those mighty flocks, and of the
quantity of food daily consumed by its members.... Let us take a column
of one mile in breadth, which is far below the average size, and
suppose it passing over us without interruption for three hours, at the
rate mentioned above of one mile in the minute. This will give us a
parallelogram of 180 miles by 1, covering 180 square miles. Allowing
two pigeons to the square yard, we have 1,115,136,000 pigeons in one
flock. As every pigeon daily consumes fully half a pint of food, the
quantity necessary for supplying this vast multitude must be 8,712,000
bushels per day.
“‘As soon as the pigeons discover a sufficiency of food to entice them
to alight, they fly round in circles, reviewing the country below.
During their evolutions, on such occasions, the dense mass which they
form exhibits a beautiful appearance, as it changes its direction, now
displaying a glistening sheet of azure, when the backs of the birds
come simultaneously into view, and anon suddenly presenting a mass of
rich deep purple. 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. 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. While feeding, their avidity is at times so
great that in attempting to swallow a large acorn or nut, they are seen
gasping for a long while, as if in the agonies of suffocation.
“‘On such occasions, when the woods are filled with these pigeons, they
are killed in immense numbers, although no apparent diminution
ensues.... As the sun begins to sink beneath the horizon, they depart
en masse for the roosting-place....
“‘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.... 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. Few pigeons were then to be seen,
but a great number of persons, with horses and wagons, guns and
ammunition, had already established themselves on the borders. Two
farmers from the vicinity of Russelsville, distant more than a hundred
miles, had driven upwards of three hundred hogs to be fattened on the
pigeons which were to be slaughtered. Here and there the people
employed in plucking and salting what had already been procured, were
seen sitting in the midst of large piles of these birds. The dung lay
several inches deep, covering the whole extent of the roosting-place,
like a bed of snow. 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. As the period of their arrival approached, their foes
anxiously prepared to receive them. Some were furnished with iron pots
containing sulphur, others with torches of pine knots, many with poles,
and the rest with guns. The sun was lost to our view, yet not a pigeon
had arrived. Everything was ready, and all eyes were gazing on the
clear sky, which appeared in glimpses amidst the tall trees. Suddenly
there burst forth a general cry of “Here they come!” The noise which
they made, though yet distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea,
passing through the rigging of a close-reefed vessel. As the birds
arrived and passed over me, I felt a current of air that surprised me.
Thousands were soon knocked down by the pole-men. The birds continue to
pour in. The fires were lighted, and a magnificent, as well as
wonderful and almost terrifying, sight, presented itself. The pigeons,
arriving by thousands, alighted everywhere, one above another, until
solid masses as large as hogsheads were formed on the branches all
round. Here and there the perches gave way under the weight with a
crash, and falling to the ground, destroyed hundreds of the birds
beneath, forcing down the dense groups with which every stick was
loaded. It was a scene of uproar and confusion. I found it quite
useless to speak, or even to shout to those persons who were nearest to
me. Even the reports of the guns were seldom heard, and I was made
aware of the firing only by seeing the shooters reloading.
“‘No one dared venture within the line of devastation. The hogs had
been penned up in due time, the picking up of the dead and wounded
being left for the next morning’s employment. The pigeons were
constantly coming, and it was past midnight before I perceived a
decrease in the number of those that arrived. The uproar continued the
whole night.... Toward the approach of day, the noise in some measure
subsided, long before objects were distinguishable, the pigeons began
to move off in a direction quite different from that in which they had
arrived the evening before, and at sunrise all that were able to fly
had disappeared. The howlings of the wolves now reached our ears, and
the foxes, lynxes, cougars, bears, racoons, opossums, and polecats were
seen sneaking off, whilst eagles and hawks of different species,
accompanied by a crowd of vultures, came to supplant them, and enjoy
their share of the spoil.
“‘It was then that the authors of all this devastation began their
entry amongst the dead, the dying, and the mangled. The pigeons were
picked up and piled in heaps, until each had as many as he could
possibly dispose of, when the hogs were let loose to feed on the
remainder.’
“Here ends Audubon’s story. What do you think of it, my friends?”
“I think,” Jules replied, “that those flocks of pigeons darkening the
sky and taking several days to pass over are the most astonishing thing
I have ever heard of about birds.”
“And I,” said Emile, “am still thinking of that shower of dung that
falls from the sky, as thick as flakes of snow in winter, when the
pigeons are flying over. Everywhere they fly the ground is whitened
with this singular shower.”
“And those trees breaking under the pigeons’ weight,” Louis exclaimed;
“those three hundred pigs let loose to surfeit on what the hunters have
left—all that would seem incredible to me if Uncle Paul had not assured
us it was so.”
“It’s a great pity,” sighed Emile, “that we have no such flocks of
pigeons here. If they are knocked down with nothing but a pole, as we
knock down apples and nuts, I would undertake to bag a fine lot
myself.”
“Would you also,” his uncle asked him, “undertake to find food for the
pigeons, when for a single day’s supply for one of their flocks it
takes from eight to nine million bushels of seeds? You see well enough
that such multitudes would be calamitous: the entire harvest of a
province would scarcely be enough to fill the crops of these ravenous
birds. Such flocks require vast tracts of woodland not exploited by
man, such as America had sixty years ago, in Audubon’s time. But
to-day, in that country, as civilization extends its boundaries the
primeval forests disappear and give place to cultivated fields. Food
becoming scarce, pigeons also become scarce; and it is doubtful whether
one could ever again witness such prodigious scenes as formerly.”