. The passenger pigeon in Pennsylvania, its remarkable history, habits and extinction, with interesting side lights on the folk and forest lore of the Alleghenian region of the old Keystone state. from Mr. Wil-son in a previous chapter, upon a similar observation. Air. Audubon concluded his notes with the follow-ing words: But I cannot describe to you the extreme beautyof their aerial evolutions when a hawk chanced topress upon the rear of a flock. At once, Hke a torrent,and with a noise like thunder, they rushed into a com-pact mass, pressing upon each other lowards the cen-tre. In these almo
. The passenger pigeon in Pennsylvania, its remarkable history, habits and extinction, with interesting side lights on the folk and forest lore of the Alleghenian region of the old Keystone state. from Mr. Wil-son in a previous chapter, upon a similar observation. Air. Audubon concluded his notes with the follow-ing words: But I cannot describe to you the extreme beautyof their aerial evolutions when a hawk chanced topress upon the rear of a flock. At once, Hke a torrent,and with a noise like thunder, they rushed into a com-pact mass, pressing upon each other lowards the cen-tre. In these almost solid masses they darted forwardin undulating and angular Hues, descended and sweptclose over the earth with inconceivable velocity, mount-ed perpendicularly so as to resemble a vast column, andv/hen high were seen Vvdieeling and twisting withintheir continued lines, which then resembled the coils ofa gigantic serpent. The birds flew with such martial exactness, accord-ing to C. H. Shearer, of Reading, who painted the greatpicture The Flight of the Wild Pigeons that whenthey became too compact or congested, numbers ofthem dropped in great spirals and resumed the flightat a lower JOHN LYMAN1786-1873 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 43 With that much \vc must be saiishtcl, so far asclumsy words in ink are concerned. From Wilson tothe author of Juniata Memories, and then back toAudubon, who admits that he caiinoi describe theextreme beauty of their aerial evolutions ; what theseauthors cannot describe about birds in words we mustavail ourselves of imaginations artful aid to compre-hend, or adopt the poetic plan of ibx Indian and ges-ture, dance, cnant and pray, in our fervor to convey theecstasy we feel at certain sublime moments of ourexperience. Those who have never beheld a tlight ofwild pigeons have never had an opportunity of devel-oping their faculties to comprehend such a sight. Theyare also unable to assimilate most of the efforts todewelop them than can be
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectpigeons, bookyear1919
