292 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 
every flock that passed. In a short time, finding 
the task which I had undertaken impracticable, as 
the birds poured on in countless multitudes, I rose, 
and counting the dots then put down, found that one 
hundred and sixty-three had been made in twenty- 
one minutes. I travelled on, and still met more 
the farther I proceeded. The air was literally 
filled with pigeons ; the light of noonday was ob- 
scured as by an eclipse; the dung fell in spots, not 
unlike melting flakes of snow; and the continued 
buzz of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to 
repose. ei 
“ While waiting for dinner at Young’s inn, at the 
confluence of the Salt River with the Ohio, I saw, at 
my leisure, immense legions still going by, with a 
front reaching far beyond the Ohio on the west and 
the beechwood forests directly on the east of me. 
Not a single bird alighted; 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 ineffect- 
ual; nor did the reports disturb them in the least. 
I cannot describe to you the extreme beauty of 
their aerial evolutions, when a hawk chanced to 
press upon the rear of a flock. At once, like a tor- 
rent, and with a noise like thunder, they rushed 
into a compact mass, pressing upon each other to- 
wards the centre. In these almost solid masses, 
they darted forward in undulating and angular lines, 
descended and swept close over the earth with in- 
conceivable velocity, mounted penpendicularly so 
as to resemble a vast column, and when high, were 
seen wheeling and twisting within their continued 
lines, which then resembled the coils of a gigantic 
serpent. 
** Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from 
Hardensburgh fifty-five miles. The pigeons were 
still passing in undiminished numbers, and contin- 
ued to do so for three days in succession. The 
