The Passenger Pigeon 17 



quently found in individuals killed many hundred miles 

 to the northward of the nearest rice plantation. The 

 vast quantity of mast which these multitudes consume 

 is a serious loss to the bears, pigs, squirrels, and other 

 dependents on the fruits of the forest. I have taken 

 from the crop of a single wild pigeon a good handful of 

 the kernels of beechnuts, intermixed with acorns and 

 chestnuts. To form a rough estimate of the daily con- 

 sumption of one of these immense flocks let us first 

 attempt to calculate the numbers of that above men- 

 tioned, as seen in passing between Frankfort and the 

 Indiana territory. If we suppose this column to have 

 been one mile in breadth (and I believe it to have been 

 much more) , and that it moved at the rate of one mile 

 in a minute, four hours, the time it continued passing, 

 would make its whole length two hundred and forty 

 miles. Again, supposing that each square yard of this 

 moving body comprehended three pigeons, the square 

 yards in the whole space, multiplied by three, would 

 give two thousand two hundred and thirty millions, two 

 hundred and seventy-two thousand pigeons I — an almost 

 inconceivable multitude, and yet probably far below the 

 actual amount. Computing each of these to consume 

 half a pint of mast daily, the whole quantity at this rate 

 would equal seventeen millions, four hundred and 

 twenty-four thousand bushels per day! Heaven has 

 wisely and graciously given to these birds rapidity of 

 flight and a disposition to range over vast uncultivated 



