254 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OP ANIMALS. CHAP. VIII. 



They were flying with great steadiness and rapidity, at 

 a height beyond gun-shot, 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, far as the eye 

 could reach, the breadth of this vast procession ex- 

 tended, seeming everywhere equally crowded. Curious 

 to determine 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 hour, but, instead of a diminution of this 

 prodigious procession, it seemed rather to increase both 

 in numbers and rapidity ; and, anxious to reach Frank- 

 fort before night, I rose and went on. About four 

 o'clock in the afternoon, I crossed the Kentucky river, 

 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 fol- 

 lowed 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 multi- 

 tude preserved, would seem to intimate a corresponding 

 breadth of their breeding place, which was known to 

 extend to several miles. I crossed this breeding place 

 soon after, where the nests, for more than three miles, 

 spotted every tree* A few observations upon their 

 mode of flight must not be omitted. The appearance 

 of large detached bodies of them in the air, and the va- 

 rious evolutions they display, are strikingly picturesque 

 and interesting. 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 band of more than a mile in diameter, 

 those behind tracing the exact route of their predeces- 

 sors. This would continue, sometimes, long after both 

 extremities were beyond the reach of sight, so that the 

 whole, with its glittering undulations, marked a space 



