COLUMBID.E — THE PIGEONS. 371 



plied with mast, they fly low in order to discover the part most plentifully 

 supplied. 



Several writers, who have witnessed the occasionally enormous flights of 

 these Pigeons, have given very full and graphic accounts of tlieir immense 

 numbers that seem hardly credible to those who have not seen them. 

 Mr. Audubon relates that in 1813, on his way from Henderson to Louisville, 

 in crossing the barrens near Hardensburg, he observed these birds flying to 

 the southwest in greater numbers than he had ever known before. He 

 attempted to count the different flocks as they successively passed, but after 

 counting one hundred and sixty-three in twenty-one minutes he gave it up 

 as impracticable. As he journeyed on, their numbers seemed to increase. 

 The air seemed filled with Pigeons, and the light of noonday to be obscured 

 as by an eclipse. Not a single bird alighted, as the woods were destitute of 

 mast, and all flew so high that he failed to reach any with a rifle. He speaks 

 of their aerial evolutions as beautiful in the extreme, especially when a Hawk 

 pressed upon the rear of a flock. All at once, like a torrent, and with a 

 noise like that of thunder, they rushed together into a compact mass, and 

 darted forward in undulating lines, descending and sweeping near the earth 

 with marvellous velocity, then mounting almost perpendicularly in a vast 

 column, wheeling and twisting so that their continued lines seemed to re- 

 semble the coils of a gigantic serpent. During the whole of his journey 

 from Hardensburg to Louisville, fifty-five miles, they continued to pass in 

 imdiminislied numljers, and also did so during the three following days. At 

 times they flew so low that multitudes were destroyed, and for many days 

 the entire population seemed to eat nothing else but Pigeons. 



When a flight of Pigeons discovers an abundant supply of food, sufficient 

 to induce tliem to alight, they are said to pass around in circles over the 

 place, making various evolutions, after a while passing lower over the woods, 

 and at length alighting ; then, as if suddenly alarmed, taking to flight, only 

 to return immediately. These manoeuvres are repeated with various indica- 

 tions of indecision in their movements, or as if apprehensive of unseen 

 dangers. During these manoeuvres the flapping of their many thousand 

 wings causes a reverberation suggestive of distant thunder. When at last 

 settled upon the ground, they industriously search among the fallen leaves 

 for the acorns and the beech-mast, the rear flocks continually rising, passing 

 over the main body, and realighting. These changes are so frequent that at 

 times the whole collection appears to be in motion. A large extent of 

 ground is thus cleared in a surprisingly short space of time, and cleared with 

 a completeness that is described as incredible. They are usually satiated by 

 the middle of the day, and ascend to the trees to rest and digest their food. 

 On these occasions the Pigeons are destroyed in immense numbers, and 

 their abundance in large extents of the country has been very sensibly 

 reduced. 



In its movements on the ground, as also when alighted on the branches 



