The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1851-11-12
WOODSFIELD, OHIO, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 49, 1851

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8 seen, it will not. don't know, my min,
may be differently constituted, but this ex
) hibilion OF instinct on q scale so vast, $,
sublime. outrivals, in my estimation. an,
7 inanimatc display of Natures handiwork
twas just sundown when we debouchet
from the narrow road which ran through
the dark deep forest. into an old field. OF
the other side of which lay the 'roost," in
dense thicket Of low trees, such as we
J have in the barrens. and extending ovel
about thousand acres or more Looking
towards the horizon, a long, dark, serpen.
tine object, winding through the air on a
level with it. attracted our gaze. "The
Pigeons!'' burst in an exclamation from
our lips. On they came, in one unbroken
column of about fifty deep, and hundred
abreast, all moving ss by one impulse
pouring in dark, dense, waving line,
creeping, writhing along the horizon, like
huge snake, their flight accompanied by
a low and awful roar, like the sound of q
distant hurricane. ......
Colonel Overton, who had never been to
the roost in his lie, and now saw this long
mysterious army Of birds coming into
"camp" for the night, was Of course as
tonished out OF measure. and gave ex-
preston to it in his own peculiar and EN-.
phatic way.
The pigeons scour the country during
the day in foraging parties Of twenty, fifty,
or a hundred, in quest of acorns, beech
nuts. and other mast, on which they feed
Though scattered far and wide, some of
them rove more than hundred miles off
during the day, over the whole face of the
country: they all instinctively direct their
way towards the common roosiing- place
as evening draws near. 1t is like gath
ering Of The clans" struggling detach-
ments, all winging their way towards the
same point, fall in with each other and
unite; their numbers are constantly SWELL
ed by new accessions, until, as they draw
near tho roost, they constitute one vast
army; disciplined army, too, for each
bird follows his fie.leader, and there is no
confusion or interruption. The dense,
and at that distance, solid-looking mass,
heaves and swells in airy pillows all in
unison, scarcely unit bird leaving the
ranks.
When the bold fifty abreast head OF the
colu"n-no struggling at random, ragged
iront-comnanded by its leader, will
suppose. enters the roost, there is not a
general breakup, each man his own way:
the advancing column takes circuit
along the outer edge of The roost, de-
scrbes circle around It's whole extent,
returns back, and then smaller circle,
and so on. until the whole army coils tsel
up in whorl. and then pours down like
a waterspout in the middle, deploys drop
ping down, however from the moment
that they enter the roost, until, by the ttme
the whorl is complete, the whole roost is
ono living, roaring multitude OF birds.
Alter few minutes pause to let our ad-
miraton and curiosity subside, we con.
tinued across the "old field" and entered
the roost. The noise. which in the dis.
tance had sounded like a blended and
suppressed roar, now dinned into our ears
as we pushed into "a narrow path that led
into the densely-tangled brushwood in the
roost. lke-lIke the dcnse-I never heard
any thing like it, Imagine Niagara Falls
placed i'll the echoing chambers Of the
Mammoth Cave, and seventy or eighty
machine shops, worked by steam engines,
at work hard by it. and then conceive a
housand men firing into said cave at the
same time with loud shooting bunderbuss-
's, and hallooing every mothers son Of
hem at the top Of their lungs, and you
will get some idea of what it was like.
The blunderbusses and shooting men, by
he way were literal, for the roost was full
If them.
81 say, Ernie. lad" halloosd the Colo
lel in my ear, ''it sounds as if fifty thous.
md June-bugs were playing the jewsharp
n the drums Of my ears''
The air was so agtated by the flying
llther and thther of crowds Of birds. that {
made your hair stand on end, and near. .
made you do so too. Nothing could be
distinguished but the roar of wings, the
Of millions OF birds, with an oc.
'asional chkeeh, he.he-he, rising high out
IT the din from sheer dissonance. Igga. /
"Now the way TO manage" said Boil
ar, who was an old "rooster." after we .
lad kindled q fire, picketed our horses,
md made all the necessary preparations
or camping. 1.-THE way to manage is this: J
ct two 60 out at a time, and the rest re. G
main in TO watch until they return, so that
he camp may not be lost or neglected"
This was agreed upon, and Bolivar and
he Colonel made the first sally, taking with '
hem dark lantern, that after they fired +
hey might open it and pick up the birds
hey had shot; we who remained in camp c
we're to sound horn-sharp and shri, G
o that it would be distinguished in tho
abel of sounds-every five minutes, that !,
hey might know our whereabouts. so that /
hey, might return. After few minutes
romiscuous chatting and joking. our com. /.
amy resolved itself into an elementary
orm. af5..