1 8 The Passenger Pigeon 



tracts of the earth, otherwise they must have perished 

 in the districts where they resided, or devoured up the 

 whole productions of agriculture, as well as those of 

 the forests. 



A few observations on the mode of flight of these 

 birds must not be omitted. The appearance of large 

 detached bodies of them in the air and the various evo- 

 lutions they display are strikingly picturesque and in- 

 teresting. In descending the Ohio by myself in the 

 month of February I often -rested on my oars to con- 

 template their aerial manoeuvres. A column, eight or 

 ten miles in length, would appear from Kentucky, high 

 in air, steering across to Indiana. The leaders of this 

 great body would sometimes gradually vary their course 

 until it formed a large bend of more than a mile in 

 diameter, those behind tracing the exact route of their 

 predecessors. This would continue sometimes long 

 after both extremities were beyond the reach of sight, 

 so that the whole, with its glittery undulations, marked 

 a space on the face of the heavens resembling the wind- 

 ings of a vast and majestic river. When this bend be- 

 came very great the birds, as if sensible of the unneces- 

 sary circuitous course they were taking, suddenly 

 changed their direction, so that what was in column 

 before, became an immense front, straightening all its 

 indentures, until it swept the heavens in one vast and 

 infinitely extended line. Other lesser bodies also 

 united with each other as they happened to approach 



