THE PASSENGER PIGEON-——-KALM AND AUDUBON. 419 
In the autumn of 1813, I left my house at Henderson, on the banks 
of the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over the Barrens, a 
few miles beyond Hardinsburg, I observed the pigeons flying from 
northeast to southwest in greater numbers than I thought I had ever 
seen them before, and feeling an inclination to count the flocks that 
might pass within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, 
seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, 
making a dot for every flock that passed. In a short time finding the 
task which I had undertaken impracticable, as the birds poured in in 
countless multitudes, I rose, and counting the dots then put down, 
found that 163 had been made in 21 minutes. I traveled on, and still 
met more the farther I proceeded. The air was literally filled with 
pigeons; the light of noonday was obscured as by an eclipse; the dung 
fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow; and the continued buzz 
of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose. 
Whilst waiting for 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 
beechwood forests directly on the east of me. Not a single bird 
alighted; for not a nut or acorn was that year to be seen in the neigh- 
borhood. They consequently flew so high, that different trials to reach 
them with a capital rifle proved ineffectual; nor did the reports dis- 
turb them in the least. I can not describe to you the extreme beauty 
of their aerial evolutions, when a hawk chanced to press upon the rear 
ofa flock. At once, like a torrent, and with a noise like thunder, they 
rushed into a compact mass, pressing upon each other toward the 
center. In these almost solid masses, they darted forward in undula- 
ting and angular lines, descended and swept close over the earth with 
inconceivable velocity, mounted perpendicularly so as to resemble a 
vast column, and, when high, were seen wheeling and twisting within 
their continued lines, which then resembled the coils of a gigantic 
serpent. 
Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from Hardinsburg 55 
miles. The pigeons were still passing in undiminished numbers, and 
continued to do so for three daysin succession. The people were all in 
arms. The banks of the Chio were crowded with men and boys, inces- 
santly shooting at the pilgrims, which there flew lower as they passed 
the river. Multitudes were thus destroyed. For a week or more, the 
population fed on no other flesh than that of pigeons, and talked of 
nothing but pigeons. The atmosphere, during this time, was strongly 
impregnated with the peculiar odor which emanates from the species. 
It is extremely interesting to see flook after flock performing exactly 
the same evolutions which had been traced, as it were, in the air by a 
preceding flock. Thus, should a hawk have charged on a group at a 
certain spot, the angles, curves, and undulations that have been 
