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 the numbers above mentioned, as seen in passing between
Frankfort and the Indian 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
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
incredible multitude, and yet far below the actual amount. Computing
each of these to consume half a pint of mast (nuts, and other seeds of
trees) 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 the whole productions of agriculture, as well as those of