PASSENGER PIGEON. 5 



of these returned before ten o'clock, and the great body gen- 

 erally appeared on their return a little after noon. 



I had left the public road, to visit the remains of the breed- 

 in g place near Shelby ville, and was traversing the woods with 

 my gun, in my way to Frankfort, when about one o'clock the 

 Pigeons, which I had observed flying the greater part of the 

 morning northerly, began to return in such immense numbers 

 as I never before had witnessed. Coming to an opening by the 

 side of a creek called the Benson, where I had a more uninter- 

 rupted view, I was astonished at their appearance. They were 

 flying with great steadiness and rapidity, at a height beyond 

 gunshot, in several strata deep, and so close together, that could 

 shot have reached them, one discharge could not have failed "of 

 bringing down several individuals. From right to left as far as 

 the eye could reach, the breadth of this vast procession extend- 

 ed; seeming every where equally crowded. Curious to deter- 

 mine how long this appearance would continue, I took out my 

 watch to note the time, and sat down to observe them. It was 

 then half past one. I sat for more than an hour, but instead of a 

 diminution of this prodigious procession, it seemed rather to in- 

 crease both in numbers and rapidity; and, anxious to reach 

 Frankfort before night, I rose and went on. About four o'clock 

 in the afternoon I crossed the Kentucky river, at the town of 

 Frankfort, at which time the living torrent above my head 

 seemed as numerous and as extensive as ever. Long after this I 

 observed them, in large bodies that continued to pass for six or 

 eight minutes, and these again were followed by other detached 

 bodies, all moving in the same south-east direction, till after six 

 in the evening. The great breadth of front which this mighty 

 multitude preserved, would seem to intimate a corresponding 

 breadth of their breeding place, which by several gentlemen who 

 had lately passed through part of it, was stated to me at several 

 miles. It was said to be in Green county, and that the young 

 began to fly about the middle of March. On the seventeenth of 

 April, forty -nine miles beyond Danville, and not far from Green 

 river, I crossed this same breeding place, where the nests for 



