258 Mr Audubon on the Habits of 



very short time. This is proved by facts known to the greater 

 number of observers in America. Pigeons, for example, have 

 been killed in the neighbourhood of New York, with their 

 crops still filled with rice, collected by them in the fields of 

 Georgia and Carolina, the nearest point at which this supply 

 could possibly have been obtained ; and as it is well ascer- 

 tained, that, owing to their great power of digestion, they will 

 decompose food entirely in twelve hours, they must have tra- 

 velled between 300 and 400 miles in six hours, making their 

 speed at an average about one mile in a minute, and this 

 would enable one of these birds, if so inclined, to visit the 

 European continent, as swallows undoubtedly are able to do, 

 in a couple of days. * 



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 view objects below, to discover their food with facility, and 

 thus put an immediate end to their journey. This I have 

 also proved to be the case, by having observed the pigeons, 

 when passing over a destitute part of the country, keep high 

 in air, and in such an extensive front, as to enable them to 

 survey hundreds of acres at once. But if, on the contrary, 

 the land is richly covered with food, or the trees with mast, 

 they will fly low in order to discover the portion most plenti- 

 fully supplied, and upon these they alight progressively. 



The form of the bodies of these swift travellers is an elon- 

 gated oval, steered by a long well-plumed tail, furnished with 

 extremely well set and very muscular wings for the size of the 

 individual. If a single bird is seen gliding through the woods 

 and close by, it passes apparently like a thought ; and on try- 

 ing to see him again, the eye searches in vain — the bird is 

 gone ! 



Their multitudes in our woods are astonishing ; and, in- 

 deed, after having viewed them so often, and under so many 

 circumstances, for years, and, I may add, in many different 

 climates, I even now feel inclined to pause, and assure myself 

 afresh that what I am going to relate is fact. That I have 



• A specimen of the Columba migratoria was shot in Fifeshire in January 

 1826. See this Journal, vol. iv. p. 276. 



