THE PASSENGEE 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 

 of a 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 days in succession. The people were all in 

 arms. The banks of the Ohio 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 flock 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 



