PRODIGIOUS FLOCKS OF PIOEONS. 



sunrise set out for the Indiana territory, the nearest part of 

 which -was about sixty miles distant. Many of these returned 

 before ten o'clock, and the great body generally appeared on 

 their return a little after noon. I had left the pubho road to 

 ■visit the remains of the breeding-place near Shelbyville, and 

 was traversing the woods with my gun on my way to Frank- 

 fort, when, about ten o'clock, the pigeons which I had observed 

 flying the greater part of the morning northerly, began to 

 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 appearance; 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. Prom 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, 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 dimi- 

 nution 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 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 

 mighty multitude preserved, would seem to intimate a corre- 

 sponding breadth of their breeding-place, which, by several 

 gentlemen, who had lately passed through part of it, was 

 stated to me at several nules." 



Wilson then enters into a rough calculation of the numbers 

 of this mass, and he comes to the conclusion, that its whole length 

 was 240 miles, and that the numbers composing it amounted 

 to 2,230,272,000 pigeons, observing, that this is probably far 

 below the actual amount. He adds, that allowing each pigeon 

 to consume half a pint of food daily, the whole quantity would 

 equal 17,424,000 bushels daily. Audubon confirms Wilson in 



