GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 15I 



" While waiting for dinner at Young's Inn, at the confluence of Salt River with the Ohio, I saw 

 at my leisure immense legions still going by, with a front reaching far beyond the Ohio on the west, 

 and the beech-wood forests directly on the east of me. Not a single bird alighted ; for not a nut or 

 acorn was that year to be seen in the neighbourhood. They consequently flew so high that different 

 trials to reach them with a rifle proved ineffectual, nor did the reports disturb them in the least. 

 I cannot describe to you the extreme beauty of their aerial evolutions. When a Hawk chanced to 

 press upon the rear of a flock, at once, like a torrent, and with a noise like thunder, they rushed into 

 a compact mass, pressing upon each other towards the centre. In these almost solid masses they 

 darted forward in undulating and angular lines, descended and swept close over the earth with 

 inconceivable velocity, mounted perpendicularly, so as to resemble a vast column, and when high in 

 the air were seen wheeling and twisting within their continued lines, which then. resembled the coils 

 of a gigantic serpent. 



"Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from Hardensburg fifty-five miles. The Pigeons 

 were still passing in undiminished numbers, and continued to do so for three days in succession. 

 The people were all in arms. The banks of the Ohio were crowded with men and boys, incessantly 

 shooting at the pilgrims, which there flew lower as they passed the river. Multitudes were thus 

 destroyed. For a week or more the population fed on no other flesh but Pigeons', and talked of 

 nothing but Pigeons. 



" It is extremely interesting to see flock after flock performing exactly the same evolutions which 

 had been traced as it were in the air by a preceding flock. Thus, should a Hawk have charged on 

 a group at a certain spot, the angles, curves, and undulations that have been described by the birds 

 in their efforts to escape from the dreaded talons of the plunderer are undeviatingly followed by the 

 next group that comes up. Should the bystander happen to witness one of these affrays, and, struck 

 with the rapidity and elegance of the motions exhibited, feel desirous of seeing them repeated, his 

 wishes will be gratified if he only remain in the place until the next group comes up. 



" Perhaps it may not be amiss to make an estimate of the number of Pigeons contained in such 

 a host, and of the amount of food consumed by them. Granting the procession to be a mile broad, 

 which is certainly no exaggeration, and that at a given speed it travels for three hours, we obtain a 

 parallelogram of eighteen square miles, English measure; this, reckoning only two pigeons to the 

 square yard, would give 1,000,1 1 5,736,000 individuals in such a flight; and if each Pigeon required daily 

 half a pint of food, the whole multitude would consume 8,712,000 bushels daily. Wilson makes a 

 similar calculation, and arrives at the conclusion that one swarm contains more than 2,000,000,000,000 

 Pigeons, and requires daily 17,424,000 bushels of corn. 



" As soon as the Pigeons discover a sufficiency of food to entice them to alight, they fly round 

 in circles, reviewing the country below. During their evolutions on such occasions, the dense mass 

 which they form exhibits a beautiful appearance as it changes its direction, now displaying a 

 glistening sheet of azure, when the backs of the birds come simultaneously into view, and anon 

 suddenly presenting a mass of rich deep purple. They then pass lower over the woods, and for a 

 moment are lost among the foliage, but again emerge and are seen gliding aloft. They now alight, 

 but the next moment, as if suddenly alarmed, take flight, producing by the flapping of their wings a 

 noise like the roar of distant thunder, and sweep through the forests to see if danger is near. 

 Hunger, however, soon brings them to the ground. When alighted, they are seen industriously 

 throwing up the dead leaves in quest of the fallen mast. The rear ranks are continually rising, 

 passing over the main body, and alighting in front in such rapid succession that the wliole flock 

 seems still on the wing. The quantity of ground thus swept is astonishing, and so completely has it 

 been cleared that the gleaner who might follow in their rear would find his labour completely lost. 



