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 gun-shot,
and several strata deep, and so close together, that could shot have
reached them, one discharge could not have failed in bringing down
several individuals. From right to left as far as the eye could reach,
the breadth of this vast procession extended, seeming every where
equally crowded. Curious to determine how long this appearance would
continue, I took out my watch to note 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 arose 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; and 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 in the evening. The great breadth of front
which this mighty multitude preserved would seem to intimate a
corresponding breadth of their breeding place, which, by several
gentlemen who had lately passed through part of it, was stated to me at
several miles. It was said to be in Green County, and that the young
began to fly about the middle of March. On the 17th of April, forty-nine
miles beyond Danville, and not far from Green River, I crossed this same
breeding place, where the nests for more than three miles spotted every
tree; the leaves not being yet out, I had a fair prospect of them, and
was really astonished at their numbers. A few bodies of pigeons lingered
yet in different parts of the woods, the roaring of whose wings was
heard in various quarters around me.

"The vast quantity of food which these multitudes consume is a serious
loss to the other animals, such as bears, pigs, squirrels, which are
dependent 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 chesnuts. To form a rough estimate of the
daily consumption of one of these immense flocks, let us first attempt
to calculate