the forests.

"The appearance of large detached flocks of these birds in the air, and
the various evolutions they display, are strikingly picturesque and
interesting. In descending the Ohio by myself, I often rested on my oars
to contemplate their aerial manoeuvres. A column of 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, till 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 glittering undulations
marked a space on the face of the heavens resembling the windings of a
vast majestic river. When this bend became very great, the birds, as if
sensible of the unnecessarily circuitous route they were taking,
suddenly 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 approach, and
with such ease and elegance of evolution, forming new figures and
varying these as they united or separated, that I was never tired of
contemplating them. Sometimes a hawk would sweep on a particular part of
the column from a great height, when almost as quick as lightning that
part shot downwards out of the common track, but soon rising again,
continued advancing at the same height as before. This inflection was
continued by those behind, who, on arriving at this point, dived down
almost perpendicularly to a great depth, and, rising, followed the exact
path of those that went before.

"Happening to go ashore one charming afternoon to purchase some milk at