PASSENGER PIGEON. 7 



If we suppose this column to have been one mile in breadth (and 

 I believe it to have been much more, ) and that it moved at the 

 rate of one mile in a minute; four hours, the time it continued 

 passing, would make its whole length two hundred and forty 

 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 hundred 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 of mast daily, the whole quantity at this 

 rate, would equal seventeen millions four hundred and twenty- 

 four thousand bushels per day ! Heaven has wisely and graci- 

 ously given to these birds rapidity of flight, and a disposition to 

 range over vast uncultivated tracts of the earth; otherwise they 

 must have perished in the districts where they resided, or de- 

 voured up the whole productions of agriculture, as well as 

 those of the forests. 



A few observations on the mode of flight of these birds must 

 not be omitted. The appearance of large detached bodies of 

 them in the air, and the various evolutions they display, are 

 strikingly picturesque and interesting. In descending the Ohio, 

 by myself, in the month of February, I often rested on my oars 

 to contemplate their aerial manoeuvres. A column, eight or ten 

 miles in length, would appear from Kentucky, high in air, steer- 

 ing 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 predecessors. This would continue some- 

 times 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 



