MIGRATION. 293 
people were all in arms. The banks of the Ohio 
were crowded with men and boys, incessantly 
shooting at the pilgrims, which there flew lower as 
they passed the river. Multitudes were thus de- 
Stroyed. Fora week or more, the population fed 
on no other flesh than that of pigeons, and talked 
of nothing but pigeons. ‘The atmosphere, during 
this time, was strongly impregnated with the pecu- 
liar odour which emanates from the species.” 
Captain Flinders relates a somewhat parallel in- 
stance: he says that while on his voyage he saw 
“a stream of stormy peterels, which was from fifty 
to eighty yards deep and three hundred yards or 
more broad. The birds were not scattered, but fly- 
ing as compactly as the full movement of their 
wings seemed to allow; and this stream of peterels 
for a full hour and a half continued to pass without 
intermission, at a rate little inferior to the swiftness 
of a pigeon. Now taking the stratum of fifty yards 
deep by three hundred in breadth, and that it moved 
at thirty miles an hour, and allowing nine cubie 
inches of space to each bird, the number would - 
amount to one hundred and fifty-one millions and a 
half.” : 
The bluebird of America seems to have a power 
of continuous flight almost equal to that of the swal« 
low, and among the most interesting of established 
facts on the subject of migration is that which 
makes it necessary that this small bird should pass 
at least six hundred miles over the sea. Wilson 
says, ‘“ Nothing is more common in Pennsylvania 
than to see large flocks of these birds, in spring and 
fall, passing at considerable heights in the air, from 
the south in the former, and from the north in the 
latter season. The Bermudas are said to lie six 
hundred miles from the nearest part of the conti- 
nent. This seems an extraordinary flight for so 
small a bird; but it is a fact that it is performed. 
If we suppose the bluebird to fly only at the rate of 
BsB2 
