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About the middle of the day, after their repast is finished, they settle on the trees to enjoy rest and digest their food.

大约中午，野鸽结束觅食后，它们往往栖息枝杈歇息或消化食物。

As the sun begins to sink beneath the horizon; they depart en masse for the roosting place,

每当夕阳快要落山，鸽群便成群结队地分开，寻找各自过夜的栖息地，

which not unfrequently is hundreds of miles distant, as has been ascertained by persons who have kept an account of their arrivals and departures.

不同鸽群宿眠地相隔数百英里未必鲜见，有人通过记录鸽群每天栖宿细节已予以证实。

Let us now inspect their place of nightly rendezvous.

我们不妨来看看鸽群的夜间麇集地。

One of these curious roosting places, on the banks of the Green River, in Kentucky, I repeatedly visited.

令人关注的其中一处栖息地位于肯特基州格林河畔，我先后前去查勘过好几次，

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.

类似情况极为常见，那条河岸毗邻森林，四周林木葱郁，林下灌丛稀少。

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.

我曾驾车穿林而过，溯流直上达四十英里开外。我还在不同地带越过这片广袤森林，最终查明这处林地平均宽度已超过3英里，

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.

鸽群选择来此处栖息过夜。我第一次步行踏进这片密林。大约半月后，那天太阳下山两个时辰前，

Many trees, two feet in diameter, I observed, were broken off at no great distance from the ground;

森林里巨树参天，我观察到，不少树的直径已达两英尺，这些树地面间距委实不大，

and the branches of many of the largest and tallest had given way, as if the forest had been swept by a tornado.

不少高大树木的低矮枝杈更是早已砍伐殆尽，好似无情的龙卷风肆虐地掠过林中。

Everything proved to me that the number of birds resorting to this part of the forest must be immense beyond conception.

对我来说，所有情况皆已表明，此地森林夜间栖息的野鸽数目惊人，不可思议或者简直难以想象。