382 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
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far as the eyé 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 in- 
stead 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 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 direc- 
tion till after six in the evening.” 
“* * * To form a rough estimate of the daily consumption 
of one of these immense flocks, let us first attempt to calculate 
the numbers of that above mentioned as'seen in passing between. 
Frankfort and Indiana territory. If we suppose this column 
to have been a mile in breadth (and I believe it to have been 
much more) and that it moved at the rate of one mile in a 
minute ; four hours, the time it continued passing, would make 
its whole length two hundred and forty miles. Again, suppos- 
ing that each square yard of this moving body comprehended 
three Pigeons; the square yards in the whole space multiplied 
by three, would give two thousand two hundred and thirty 
millions, two hundred and seventy-two thousand pigeons! An 
almost inconceivable multitude, and yet probably far below the 
actual amount. Computing each of these to consume half a 
pint of mast daily, the whole quantity at this rate would equal. 
seventeen millions, four hundred and twenty-four thousand 
bushels per day! Heaven has wisely and graciously given to 
these birds rapidity of flight and a disposition to range over 
vast uncultivated 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. 
