Flight, ^c. of Pigeons. 139 



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 prodigious procession, it seemed rather to increase 

 both in numbers and rapidity; and, anxious to reach Frankfort be- 

 fore 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. The great breadth of front 

 which this rtiighty 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 at several miles. It was said to be in Green county, and that 

 the young began to fly about the middle of March. On the seven- 

 teenth of April, forty nine miles beyond Danville, and not far from 

 Green river, I crossed this same breeding place, where the nests for 

 more than three miles spotted every tree ; the leaves not being yet 

 •out, I had a fair prospect of them, and was really astonished at their 

 numbers. A few bodies of pigeons lingered yet in different parts 

 of the woods, the roaring of whose wings was heard in various 

 quarters around me. 



All accounts agree in stating, that each nest contains only one* 

 squab. This is so extremely fat, that the Indians, and many of the 

 whites, are accustomed to melt down the fat for domestic purposes 

 as a substitute for butter and lard. At the time they leave the nest 

 they are nearly as heavy as the old ones ; but become much leaner 

 after they are turned out to shift for themselves. 



It is universally asserted in the western countries, that the pigeons, 

 though they have only one young at a time, breed thrice and some- 

 times four times in the same . season ; the circumstances already 

 mentioned render this highly probable. It is also worthy of obser- 

 vation, that this takes place during that period when acorns, beech 

 nuts, Stc. are scattered about in the greatest abundance and mellow- 

 ed by the frost. But they are not confined to these alone ; buck- 



* The editor of the second edition of Wilson's Ornithology states, that he has been 

 told that this bird lays two eggs. 



