by, it passes apparently like a thought,
and the eye, on trying to see it again, searches in vain--the bird
is gone."

The multitudes of pigeons in our woods are astonishing; and, indeed,
after having for years viewed them so often, under so many
circumstances, and I may add in many different climates, I even now
feel inclined to pause and assure myself that what I am going to
relate is fact.

In the autumn of 1813, I left my house in Henderson, on the banks of
the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. Having met the pigeons flying
from north-east to south-west in the barrens or natural wastes, a
few miles beyond Hardensburgh, in greater apparent numbers than I
had ever seen them before, I felt an inclination to count the flocks
that would pass within the reach of my eye in one hour. I
dismounted, and, seating myself on a little eminence, took my pencil
to mark down what I saw going by and over me; and I made a dot for
every flock which passed. Finding, however, that this was next to
impossible, and feeling unable to record the flocks as they
multiplied constantly, I arose, and counting the dots already put
down, discovered that one hundred and sixty-three had been made in
twenty-one minutes.

I travelled on, and still met more flocks the farther I went. The
air was literally filled with pigeons. The light of noonday became
dim as during an eclipse. The continued buzz of wings over me had a
tendency to incline my senses to repose.

Whilst waiting for my dinner at Young's Inn, at the confluence of
Salt River with the Ohio, I saw, at my leisure, immense legions
still going by, with a front reaching far beyond the Ohio on the
west, and the beech wood forest directly on the east of me. Yet not
a single bird would alight, for not a nut or acorn was that year to
be seen in the neighborhood.

The pigeons flew so high that different trials to reach them with a
capital rifle proved ineffectual, and not even the report disturbed
them in the least. A black hawk now appeared in their rear. At once
like a torrent, and with a thunder-like noise, they formed
themselves into almost a solid, compact mass, all pressing towards
the centre.

In such a solid body, they zigzagged to escape the murderous falcon,
now down close over the earth sweeping with inconceivable velocity,
then ascending perpendicularly like a vast monument, and, when high
up, wheeling and twisting within their continuous lines, resembling
the coils of a gigantic ser