80 THE PIGEON. 



steadiness and rapidity, at a height, beyond my gun- 

 shot, in several strata deep, arid 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 reached ; seeming every 

 where 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." 



Our author goes on to state that, for four hours these 

 birds continued their flight in one uninterrupted stream, 

 and that so far from diminishing in numbers, he 

 thought they increased. 



He afterwards made an estimate of the number of 

 Pigeons which passed him during the four hours. " If 

 we suppose this column," says he, " 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." 



This to be sure is almost an inconceivable multi- 

 tude, "but, says the author, it is propably far below 

 the actual amount. The quantity of beach nuts, and 

 acorns, which this number of Pigeons would consume 

 in a day, allowing half a pint for each, would be up* 

 wards of seventeen millions-of bushels," 



