324? VERTEBRATA. AVES. 



this prodigious 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 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. * * * 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 quan- 

 tity at this rate would equal seventeen millions, four 

 hundred and twenty-four thousand 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 productions of agriculture, as 

 well as those of the forests. 



