184 PASSENGER TURTLE. 



a minute, four hours, the time it continued passing, 

 would make its whole length 240 miles. Again, 

 supposing that each square yard of this moving body 

 comprehended three pigeons, the square yards in the 

 whole space multiplied by three, would give two 

 thousand two hundred and thirty millions, two hun- 

 dred and seventy-two thousand pigeons ! an almost 

 inconceivable multitude, and yet probably far below 

 the actual amount. Computing each of these to 

 consume half a pint daily, the whole quantity at this 

 rate, would equal seventeen millions four hundred 

 and twenty-four thousand bushels per day !" 



This wonderful account of the roosting and breed- 

 ing places of the Passenger Pigeon, is corroborated 

 in every point by Audubon, who, in his delightful 

 work the " American Ornithological Biography," 

 has added various other particulars connected with 

 its history, which want of space alone prevents us 

 adverting to ; we cannot, however, pass over some of 

 his observations on the mode of flight of these birds. 

 " It is," he remarks, " extremely interesting to see 

 flock after flock performing exactly the same evolu- 

 tions which had been traced as it were in the air by 

 a preceding flock. Thus, should a hawk have 

 charged on a group at a certain spot, the angles, 

 curves, and undulations that have been described by 

 the birds, in their efforts to escape from the dreaded 

 talons of the plunderer, are undeviatingly followed 

 by the next group that comes up. Should the by- 

 stander happen to witness one of these affrays, and, 



