PASSENGER PIGEON. 27 



at Westhall in the parish of Monymeal, Fifeshire, the 31st 

 of December, 1825. The feathers were quite fresh and 

 entire, hke those of a wild bird." To this in the 2nd and 

 3rd Editions was added the record of another, which was sent 

 to Mr. John Norman, of Royston, for preservation, the follow- 

 ing notice of the occurrence being contributed by Mr. Hale 

 Wortham. This bird (now in the Saffron Walden Museum) was 

 obtained between Royston and Chishill, early in the month 

 of July, 1844, by the sons of the tenant of the farm called 

 Known' s Folly, about two miles east of Ptoyston. When the 

 lads first saw the bird it appeared so much exhausted that they 

 could have knocked it down with a pole, if they had had one; 

 they, however, fetched a gun and shot it. When examined 

 the crop was quite empty, but in the stomach there were 

 some few seeds, resembling cole-seed, and a few small stones, 

 but no barley or any traces of artificial food. The plumage 

 was perfect, and neither the wings, the tail, nor the legs 

 exhibited any sign that the bird had been in confinement. 

 Of the correctness of the identification of these two exam- 

 ples there can be no question ; but it will be observed 

 that in neither case does the date of the occurrence corre- 

 spond with that of the usual periods of migration. More- 

 over, although there is no proof that Passenger Pigeons 

 were brought over to this country prior to 1825, yet Audubon 

 states that in March, 1830, he bought about 350 of these 

 birds in the market of New York, and carried most of them 

 alive to England, distributing them amongst several noble- 

 men (Orn. Biog. i. p. 326) ; thus shewing that there was 

 then no difficulty in bringing them over ; and, as a matter of 

 fact, they have subsequently been imported with frequency. 



The next instance is recorded by Thompson in the ' Birds 

 of Ireland,' iii. p. 443, in which he quotes the following 

 letter from Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald, Junr., writing from Tralee 

 in July 1850 : — " I had in my possession, about two years 

 ago, a Passenger Pigeon which was caught near this town 

 when unable to fly from fatigue. From this circumstance 

 there can, I think, be no doubt that it came direct from 

 America, as a bird of its powers of flight would not have 



