94 SPOKT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



birds were flying too high to be within shot, so I 

 had no chance of making a breach in their ranks. 

 I determined, therefore, to count the flocks which 

 passed over my head within an hour. I sat down 

 c_[uietly, and drawing a pencil and paper out of my 

 pocket, began taking notes. In the space of thirty- 

 five minutes I counted two hundred and twenty 

 flocks of pigeons flying overhead. After this the 

 separate flocks seemed to unite and to fly in a 

 compact body, which hid them very soon from sight. 

 The dung of these birds fell like snow in winter, 

 and covered the soil. 



Returning to the inn at Hartford about mid-da}-, 

 I had leisure to examine the continuation of their 

 miraculous flight. The pigeons made no halt in 

 the surrounding plains, for all throughout the 



tliey returned in large numbers. The greedy rascals ! The harvest 

 was magnificent, and they wanted their share. Like those European 

 carrier pigeons which were used to carry news before the invention of 

 the electric telegraph, the American pigeons have a jrrodigious power 

 of flight. I have killed birds in the State of New York, with their 

 crops full of Georgian or Carolinian rice ; from which I conclude that 

 they bad flown the three to four hundred miles in six hours at the 

 utmost. The American pigeons, besides the faculty of flight, have 

 also a remarkable power of vision. They have no need to stop and 

 explore for the fruits and grain on which they feed ; whenever they 

 fly very high, and extend their battalions afar, they are reconnoitring 

 the land ; and when they descend towards the earth in a serried mass, 

 it is because they have made a fortunate discovery that the pasture is 

 abundant. The whole anatomy of the pigeon, its powerful wings, 

 forked tail, and oval body, fits it for long and rapid flight ; and iu 

 spite of an organisation so little calculated to render the flesh tender, 

 these pigeons are much sought after in America, where they are con- 

 sidered very delicate eating. 



