118 THE WORLD OF LIFE 



CHAP. 



tory, the nearest part of which was about sixty miles distant. 

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

 generally appeared on their return a little after noon. I had left 

 the public road to visit the remains of the breeding-place near 

 Shelbyville, and was traversing the woods with my gun, on my way 

 to Frankfort, when about ten 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 uninterrupted 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 bringing down several birds. From right to left as far as the 

 eye could reach, the breadth of this vast procession extended, seem- 

 ing 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 an hour, but instead of a diminution of this pro- 

 digious procession it seemed rather to increase, 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 

 Kentucky river, at the town of Frankfort, at which time the living 

 torrent above my head seemed as numerous and 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 o'clock 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 as several miles." 



Wilson then gives a rough calculation of the probable 

 numbers of this great flight of pigeons, and comes to the 

 conclusion that its whole length was 240 miles, and that 

 the number of birds must have been considerably more than 

 2000 millions. If each pigeon consumed only half a pint 

 of food daily, the quantity would amount to over 1 7 millions 

 of bushels daily. Audubon, who went through the same 

 country about twenty years later, confirms Wilson's account 

 in every essential part ; and the language of the former is so 

 simple and restrained, that there is evidently no attempt to 

 exaggerate what he witnessed and was informed of by many 

 independent observers. Waterton, with his usual scepticism 



