HEREDITY, VAEIATIOK 127 



another, sixty or eighty miles oIT, towards Green river, where they 

 were said at tliat time to he equally numerous. From the great 

 numbers that were continually passing over our heads to or from 

 that quarter, I had no doubt of the truth of this statement. The 

 mast had been chiefly consumed in Kentucky; and the pigeons, 

 every morning a little before sunrise, set out for the Indiana terri- 

 tory, the nearest part of which w^as 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 public road to visit the remains of the breeding-place near 

 Shelbyville, and was traversing the woods with my gun, on my way 

 to Frankfort, 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 witnessed. 

 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 gunshot, in several strata deep, and so close to- 

 gether that, could shot have reached them one discharge could not 

 have failed bringing down several birds. From 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 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 

 Kentucky river, at the town of Frankfort, at which time the living 

 torrent above my head seemed as numerous and 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 o'clock in the evening. The great breadth of front 

 which this mighty multitude preserved would seem to intimate a 

 corresponding breadth of their breeding-place, wdiich, by several 

 gentlemen w^ho had lately passed through part of it, was stated to 

 me as several miles." 



