THE PASSENGER PIGEON—-KALM AND AUDUBON. 421 
they settle on the trees, to enjoy rest, and digest their food. On the 
ground they walk with ease, as well as on the branches, frequently 
jerking their beautiful tail, and moving the neck backward and for- 
ward in the most graceful manner. As the sun begins to sink 
beneath the horizon, they depart en masse for the roosting place, 
which not unfrequently is hundreds of miles distant, as has been 
ascertained by persons who have kept an account of their arrivals 
and departures. 
Let us now, kind reader, inspect their place of nightly rendezvous. 
One of these curious roosting places, on the banks of the Green River 
in Kentucky, I repeatedly visited. It was, as is always the case, in 
a portion of the forest where the trees were of great magnitude, and 
where there was little underwood. I rode through it upward of 40 
miles, and, crossing it in different parts, found its average breadth 
to be rather more than,3 miles. My first view of it was about a fort- 
night subsequent to the period when they had made choice of it, 
and I arrived there nearly two hours before sunset. Few pigeons 
were then to be seen, but a great number of persons, with horses and 
wagons, guns and ammunition, had already established encamp- 
ments on the borders. Two farmers from the vicinity of Russell- 
ville, distant more than 100 miles, had driven upward of 300 hogs 
to be fattened on the pigeons which were to be slaughtered. Here 
and there, the people employed in plucking and salting what had 
_ already been procured, were seen sitting in the midst of large piles of 
these birds. The dung lay several inches deep, covering the whole 
extent of the roosting sla like a bed of snow. Many trees 2 feet 
in diameter, I observed, were broken off at no great distance from 
a ground, and the branches of many of the ee and tallest had 
given way, as if the forest had been swept bya tornado. Everything 
proved to me that the number of birds resorting to this part of the 
forest must be immense beyond conception. As the period of their 
arrival approached, their foes anxiously prepared to receive them. 
Some were furnished with iron pots containing sulphur, others with 
torches of pine knots, many with poles, and the rest with guns. The 
sun was lost to our view, yet not a pigeon had arrived. Everything 
was ready, and all eyes were gazing on the clear sky, which appeared 
in glimpses amidst the tall trees. Suddenly there burst forth a gen- 
eral cry of “‘Here they come!” The noise which they made, though 
yet distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea passing through the 
rigging of a close-reefed vessel. As the birds arrived, and passed 
over me, I felt a current of air that surprised me. Thousands were 
soon knocked down by the pole men. The birds continued to pour 
in. The fires were lighted, and a magnificent, as well as wonderful 
and almost terrifying sight presented itself. The pigeons, arriving 
by thousands, alighted everywhere, one above another, until solid 
