256 PASSENGER PIGEON. 



river, Avhcve thev "vvcre said at that time to be equally numerous. From 

 the (Treat numbers that were constantly passing over head, to or from 

 that quarter, I had no doubt of the truth of this statement. The mast 

 had been chiefly consumed in Kentucky, and the Pigeons, every morn- 

 ing, a little before sunrise, set out for the Indiana territory, the nearest 

 part of which was about sixty miles distant. Many of these returned 

 before ten o'clock, and the great body generally appeared on their 

 return a little after noon. 



I had left the public road, to visit the remains of the breeding place 

 near Shelbyville, and was traversing the woods with my gun, in my way 

 to Frankfort, when about one o'clock the Pigeons, which I had observed 

 flying the greater part of the morning northerly, began to return in 

 such immense numbers as I never before had witnessed. Coming to an 

 opening by the side of a creek called the Benson, where I had a more 

 uninterrupted view, I was astonished at their appearance. They were 

 flying with great steadiness and rapidity, at a height beyond gunshot, 

 in several strata deep, and so close together, that could shot have 

 reached them, one discharge could not have failed of bringing down 

 several individuals. From right to left as far as the eye could reach, 

 the breadth of this vast procession extended ; seeming everywhere 

 equally crowded. Curious to determine how long this appearance would 

 continue, I took out my watch to note the time, and sat down to observe 

 them. It was then half past one. I sat for more than an hour, but 

 instead of a diminution of this prodigious procession, it seemed rather 

 to increase both in numbers and rapidity ; and, anxious to reach Frank- 

 fort before night, I rose and went on. About four o'clock in the after- 

 noon I crossed the Kentucky river, at the town of Frankfort, at which 

 time the living torrent above my head seemed as numerous and as 

 extensive as ever. Long after this I observed them, in large bodies 

 that continued to pass for six or eight minutes, and these again were 

 followed by other detached bodies, all moving in the same south-east 

 direction, till after six in the evening. The great breadth of front 

 which this mighty multitude preserved, Avould seem to intimate a corres- 

 ponding breadth of their breeding place, which by several gentlemen 

 who had lately passed through part of it, was stated to me at several 

 miles. It was said to be in Green county, and that the young began 

 to fly about the middle of March. On the seventeenth of April, forty- 

 nine miles beyond Danville, and not far from Green river, I crossed this 

 same breeding place, where the nests for more than three miles spotted 

 every tree ; the leaves not being yet out, I had a fair prospect of them, 

 and was really astonished at their numbers. A few bodies of Pigeons 

 lingered yet in different parts of the woods, the roaring of whose wings 

 was heard in various quarters around me. 



All accounts agree in stating, that each nest contains only one 



