THE PASSENGEK PIGEON. 31 



rivers, its forests, streams, springs and caves, 

 its verdurous heights and charming valleys 

 must have rendered this abiding place nothing 

 inferior in attraction, to Louisville. Here he 

 remained for several years, and unfaltering in en- 

 terprise, added fresh stores to his ornithological 

 lore. Among the most interesting of his obser- 

 vations were those relative to the character and 

 habits of that bird of romantic tradition — 

 the passenger pigeon. The flight of this bird 

 is performed with sing alar rapidity. With 

 shrewd caution, it breaks the force of its de- 

 scent by repeated flappings as it nears the 

 earth, from dread of injury on alighting too 

 suddenly. Its migrations, which are for the 

 purposo of securing food, and not on account 

 of temperature, do not, therefore take place at 

 any fixed season. It remains for several years 

 in Kentucky. This is owing, probably, to the 

 exuberant fertility of the soil, the passenger 

 pigeon requiring, apparently, a plentiful supply 

 of food, equivalent to its powers of digestion, 

 which are as extraordinary as its capacity of 

 flight. 



These aerial passengers, travelling at the rate 

 of four hundred miles in six hours, are enabled, 

 if so inclined, to visit the whole European con- 

 tinent in two or three days. They are facilitated 

 in the object for which they fly — the discovery 



