256 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OP ANIMALS. CHAP. vin. 



space, multiplied by three, would give 2,230,272,000 

 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 17,424,000 

 bushels per day ! Heaven has wisely and graciously 

 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 devoured up the whole produc- 

 tions of agriculture, as well as those of the forests." * 

 M. Audubon's account speaks of equally prodigious 

 numbers. " In the autumn of 1813," observes this 

 traveller, " I left my house at Henderson, on the banks 

 of the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over 

 the barrens, a few miles from Hardensburgh, I observed 

 the pigeons flying from north-east to south-west, in 

 greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them 

 before. I travelled on, and still met more the further 

 I proceeded : the air was literally filled with pigeons ; 

 the light of the noon-day was obscured, as by an eclipse ; 

 the dung fell in spots not unlike melting flakes of snow ; 

 and the continued buzz of wings had a tendency to lull 

 my senses to repose. Before sunset I reached Louisville, 



distance from Hardensburgh fifty-five miles. The 

 pigeons were still passing in undiminished numbers, 

 and continued to do so for three days in succession. 

 The people were all in arms. The banks of the Ohio 

 were crowded with men and boys, incessantly shooting 

 at the pigeons, which there flew lower as they passed 

 the river, and multitudes were thus destroyed. For a 

 week, or more, the population fed on no other flesh but 

 that of pigeons." Our author then proceeds to give 

 the following calculation : " Let us take a column of 

 one mile in breadth, which is far below the average 

 size, and suppose it passing over us at the rate of 

 one mile per minute. This will give us a parallelogram 

 of 180 miles by 1, covering 180 square miles; and 



* Wilson, 



