PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 57 



Hamor was not a naturalist, but his name is usually referred to 

 by zoological bibliographers, since he mentions by name over 

 sixty native animals. He was the first to describe the great flocks 

 of wild pigeons, of which he remarks : " In winter, beyond num- 

 ber or imagination, myselfe hath seene three or foure houres to- 

 gether flockes in the aire so thicke that even they have shadowed 

 the skie from us."* He gives an amusing description of the 

 •• opossume," and also speaks of the introduction and successful 

 acclimation of the Chinese silk-worm. 



In 1620, the Plymouth Colony was planted, and its members 

 also began to record their impressions of the birds and the beasts 

 and the plants which they found, for the instruction of their kins- 

 folk at home. 



Bradford and Winslow's Journal, printed in London in 1622, 

 contains various passing allusions to the animals and plants ob- 

 served by the Pilgrims, as does also Bradford's History, which, 

 however, was not printed until long after its completion. They 

 added nothing, however, to what had already been said by Smith. 



Edward Winslow's " News from New England," printed in 

 London in 1624, contains one of the earliest descriptions of the 

 Indians of the Northeast. 



William Wood's " New England's Prospect," which was is- 

 sued in London in 1634, anc * Morton's " New English Canaan," 

 printed three years later in Amsterdam, were the first formal 

 treatises upon New England and its animals and plants. The 

 two authors were very unlike, and their books even more so — yet 

 complementing each other very satisfactorily. Morton was the 

 best educated man, brightest, and most observant ; Wood, the 

 most conscientious and the most laborious in recording minute 

 details. 



" Thomas Morton, of Clifford's Inn. Gent.," was by no means 



reprint was issued by Joel Munsell at Albany in i860, but this privately 

 printed edition consisted of only 200 copies and it is already scarce. 

 *P. 21. 



