The above-mentioned passenger-pigeon affords such an excellent example
of an enormous bird-population kept up by a comparatively slow rate of
increase, and in spite of its complete helplessness and the great
destruction which it suffers from its numerous enemies, that the
following account of one of its breeding-places and migrations by the
celebrated American naturalist, Alexander Wilson, will be read with
interest:--
"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, was several miles in
breadth, and was said to be upwards of 40 miles in extent. In this tract
almost every tree was furnished with nests wherever the branches could
accommodate them. The pigeons made their first appearance there about
the 10th of April, and left it altogether with their young before the
25th of May. As soon as the young were fully grown and before they left
the nests, numerous parties of the inhabitants from all parts of the
adjacent country came with waggons, axes, beds, cooking utensils, many
of them accompanied by the greater part of their families, and encamped
for several days at this immense nursery.
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