144 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



passed the river. Multitudes were thus destroyed. 

 For a 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 peculiar odor which 

 emanates from the species. . . . 



" 'It may not, perhaps, be out of place to attempt 

 an estimate of the number of pigeons contained in 

 one of those mighty flocks, and of the quantity of 

 food daily consumed by its members. . . . Let us 

 take a column of one mile in breadth, which is far 

 below the average size, and suppose it passing over 

 us without interruption for three hours, at the rate 

 mentioned above of one mile in the minute. This 

 will give us a parallelogram of 180 miles by 1, cov- 

 ering 180 square miles. Allowing two pigeons to 

 the square yard, we have 1,115,136,000 pigeons in 

 one flock. As every pigeon daily consumes fully half 

 a pint of food, the quantity necessary for supplying 

 this vast multitude must be 8,712,000 bushels per 

 day. 



" 'As soon as the pigeons discover a sufficiency of 

 food to entice them to alight, they fly round in circles, 

 reviewing the country below. During their evolu- 

 tions, on such occasions, the dense mass which they 

 form exhibits a beautiful appearance, as it changes 

 its direction, now displaying a glistening sheet of 

 azure, when the backs of the birds come simultane- 

 ously into view, and anon suddenly presenting a 

 mass of rich deep purple. They then pass lower, 

 over the woods, and for a moment are lost among the 



