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. 



" 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 



