the Wild Pigeon of America. 259 



seen it is most certain ; and I have seen it all in the company 

 of hundreds of other persons looking on, like myself, amazed, 

 and wondering if what we saw was really true. 



In the autumn of 1813, I left my house at Henderson, on 

 the banks of the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. Having met 

 the pigeons flying from north-east to south-west, in the barrens 

 or natural wastes a few miles beyond Hardensburgh, in greater 

 apparent numbers than I thought I had ever seen them before, 

 I felt an inclination to enumerate the flocks that would pass 

 within the reach of my eye in one hour. I dismounted, and, 

 seating myself on a tolerable eminence, took my pencil to mark 

 down what I saw going by and over me, and made a dot for 

 every flock which passed 



Finding, however, that this was next to impossible, and 

 feeling unable to record the flocks, as they multiplied constant- 

 ly, I rose, and counting the dots then put down, discovered 

 that 163 had been made in twenty-one minutes. I travelled 

 on, and still met more the farther I went. The air was lite- 

 rally filled with pigeons ;' the light of noon-day became dim, 

 as during an eclipse ; the pigeons' dung fell in spots, not un- 

 like melting flakes of snow ; and the continued buz of their 

 wings over me, had a tendency to incline my senses to repose. 



Whilst waiting for my dinner at Young's Inn, at the con- 

 fluence of Salt River with the Ohio, I saw, at my leisure, 

 immense legions still going by, with a front reaching far be- 

 yond the Ohio on the west, and the beech wood forests directly 

 on the east of me. Yet not a single bird would alight ; for not 

 a nut or acorn was that year to be seen in the neighbourhood. 

 They consequently flew so high, that different trials to reach 

 them with a capital rifle proved ineffectual, and not even the 

 report disturbed them in the least. But I cannot describe how 

 beautiful their aerial evolutions were, if a black hawk appeared 

 in their rear. At once, like a torrent, and with a thunder-like 

 noise, they formed themselves into almost a solid compact mass, 

 pressing each on each towards the centre ; and when in such 

 solid bodies, they zig-zagged to escape the murderous falcon, 

 now down close over the earth sweeping with inconceivable 

 velocity, then ascending perpendicularly, like a vast monu- 



