OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



front, so as to enable them to survey hundreds of 

 acres at once. On the contrary, when the land is 

 richly covered with food, or the trees abundantly 

 hung with mast, they fly low, in order to discover 

 the part most plentifully supplied. . . . 



" 'The multitudes of wild pigeons in our woods 

 are astonishing. Indeed, after having viewed them 

 so often, and under so many circumstances, I even 

 now feel inclined to pause, and assure myself that 

 what I am going to relate is fact. Yet I have seen 

 it all, and that too in the company of persons who, 

 like myself, were struck with amazement. 



" 'In the autumn of 1813, 1 left my house at Hen- 

 derson, on the banks of the Ohio, on my way to Louis- 

 ville. In passing over the Barrens a few miles be- 

 yond Hardensburgh, I observed the pigeons flying 

 from northeast to southwest, in greater number than 

 I thought I had ever seen them before, and feeling 

 an inclination to count the flocks that might pass 

 within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, 

 seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark 

 with my pencil, making a dot for every flock that 

 passed. In a short time finding the task which I had 

 undertaken impracticable, as the birds poured in 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 trav- 

 eled on, and still met more the farther I proceeded. 

 The air was literally filled with pigeons ; the light of 

 noonday was obscured as by an eclipse ; the dung fell 

 in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow; and the 



