204 



PASSENGER PIGEON. 



killed many hundred miles to the northward of the nearest 

 rice plantation. The vast quantity of mast which these multi- 

 tudes consume is a serious loss to tlie bears, pigs, squirrels, 

 and other dependants on the fruits of the forest. I have taken 

 from the crop of a single wild pigeon a good handful of the 

 kernels of beech-nuts, intermixed with acorns and chestnuts. 

 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 the Indiana territory. If we suppose this column 

 to have been one 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, 

 supposing that each square yard of this moving body compre- 

 hended 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 dis- 

 position 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. 



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 evolutions they display, are 

 strikingly picturesque and interesting. In descending the 

 Ohio by myself, in the month of February, I often rested on 

 my oars to contemplate 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 



