294 ROOSTING PLACES OF WILD PIGEONS. 



must not be omitted. The appearance of large detached bo- 

 dies of them in the air, and the various evolutions they dis- 

 play, are strikingly picturesque and interesting. In descend- 

 ing the Ohio, by myself, in the month of February, I often 

 rested on my oars to contemplate their sBrial mano3uvres. A 

 column, eight or ten miles in length, would appear from 

 Kentucky, high in air, steering across to Indiana. The 

 leaders of this great body would sometimes gradually vary 

 their course, until it formed a large bend of more than a mile 

 in diameter, those behind tracing the exact route of their pre- 

 decessors. This would continue sometimes long after both 

 extremities were beyond the reach of sight, so that the whole, 

 with its glittery undulations, marked a space on the face of 

 the heavens resembling the windings of a vast and majestic 

 river. When this bend became very great, the birds, as if 

 sensible of the unnecessary circuitous course they were taking, 

 suddenly changed their direction, so that what was in column 

 before became an immense front, straightening all its inden- 

 tures, until it swept the heavens in one vast and infinitely 

 extended line. Other lesser bodies also united with each 

 other, as they happened to approach, with such ease and ele- 

 gance of evolution, forming new figures, and varying these 

 as they united or separated, that I was never tired of contem- 

 plating them. Sometimes a hawk would make a sweep ori 

 a particular part of the column, from a great height, whe'n 

 almost as quick as lightning, that part shot downwards out 

 of the common track, but soon rising again, continued ad- 

 vancing at the same height as before ; this inflection was 

 continued by those behind, who on arriving at this point, 

 dived down, almost perpendicularly, to a great depth, and 

 rising followed the exact path of those that went before. 



