THE PASSENGER PIGEON. 81 
history of this bird not generally known to naturalists. It was dangerous 
_ to walk under these flying and fluttering millions, from the frequent fall of 
large branches, broken down by the weight of the multitudes above, and 
which, in their descent, often destroyed numbers of the birds themselves ; 
while the clothes of those engaged in traversing the woods were completely 
covered with the excrements of the pigeons. 
“These circumstances were related to me by many of the most respectable 
part of the community in that quarter, and were confirmed in part by what 
I myself witnessed. I passed for several miles through this same breeding- 
| place, where every tree was spotted with nests, the remains of those above 
described. In many instances I counted upwards of ninety nests on a single 
tree; but the pigeons had abandoned this place for another, sixty or eighty 
miles off, towards Green River, where they were said at that time to be 
equally numerous. From the great numbers that were constantly passing | 
overhead to or from that quarter, I had no doubt of the truth of this state- 
ment. The beech mast had been chiefly consumed in Kentucky, and the 
pigeons every morning, a little before sunrise, set out for the Indiana terri- bY 
tory, the nearest part of which was about sixty miles distant. Many of | 
these returned before ten o’clock, and the great body appeared generally 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 one o'clock, the 
pigeons, which I had observed flying the greater part of the morning north- | 
erly, began the return in such immense numbers as I never before had wit- 
nessed. 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 appear- 
ance. 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, as far as the eye could reach, 
the breadth of this vast procession extended, seeming everywhere equally 
crowded. Curious to determine how long this appearance would continue, 
T took out my watch to note the time, and sat down to be observe them. It 
was then half past one. Isat for more than an hour, but, instead of a 
diminution of 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 IKen- 
tucky 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 
T observed thein in large bodies, that continued to pass for six or eight min- 
utes, and these again were followed by other detached bodies, all moving in | 
