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 place, like a bed of snow. Many trees 2 feet 

 in diameter, I observed, were broken off at no great distance from 

 the ground, and the branches of many of the largest and tallest had 

 given way, as if the forest had been swept by a tornado. Everything 

 proved to me that the number of birds resorting to this part of the 

 forest must b.e 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 



