CHAPTER XIX 

 Miscellaneous Notes 



THE earliest mention of the wild pigeon I have 

 been able to find is the following, taken from 

 Forest and Stream, to which it was con- 

 tributed by F. C. Browne, Framingham, Mass. It is 

 from an old print entitled, "Two Voyages to New Eng- 

 land, Made During the Years 1638-63," by John Josse- 

 lyn, Gent. Published in 1674. I am not so fortunate as 

 to possess an original copy. This extract is from the Bos- 

 ton reprint of 1865, and is from the "Second Voyage" 

 (1663), which has a full account of the wild beasts, 

 birds and fishes of the new settlement: 



"The Pidgeons, of which there are millions of mil- 

 lions. I have seen a flight of Pidgeons in the Spring, 

 and at Michaelmas when they return back to the South- 

 ward, for four or five miles, that to my thinking had 

 neither beginning nor ending, length nor breadth, and 

 so thick that I could see no Sun. They join Nest to 

 Nest and Tree to Tree by their Nests many miles to- 

 gether In Pine-Trees. I have bought at Boston a dozen 

 Pidgeons ready pulled and garbidged for three pence. 

 But of late they are much diminished, the English tak- 

 ing them with Nets." 



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