MIGRATORY PIGEON. 
299 
length two hundred and forty miles. Again, supposing 
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 multi- 
tude, 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 produc- 
tions 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 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 windings of a vast and majestic river. When this 
bend became very great, the birds, as if sensible of the 
unnecessary circuitous course they were taking, sud- 
denly 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 
