OF NEW ENGLAND. 379 
prey. This is eminently the case in New England, where they 
were once abundant. In summer they are now chiefly confined 
to the northern and wilder districts, but in winter they may 
occasionally be seen in more southern portions. They are 
most abundant near Boston as migrants in April and October. 
There is a low pine-wood within the present limits of the 
city, in which I have known flocks of several hundreds to roost 
every year, but I have never known them to be disturbed. 
The Wild Pigeons are still wonderfully numerous in many 
parts of the Western States, and it was there that Wilson 
made such observations as can no longer be repeated in any 
place, where I have seen these birds. Though toward the 
latter end of my work obliged to quote more often than I had 
hoped would be necessary, I do not hesitate to present to my 
readers several extracts from Wilson’s extremely interesting 
biography. 
After speaking of their range, he says: ‘*But the most 
remarkable characteristic of these birds is their associating 
together, both in their migrations and also during the period 
of incubation, in such prodigious numbers as almost to surpass 
belief; and which has no parallel among any other of the feath- 
ered tribes, on the face of the earth, with which naturalists are 
acquainted. 
‘** These migrations appear to be undertaken rather in quest 
of food, than merely to avoid the cold of the climate; since we 
find them lingering in the northern regions around Hudson’s 
Bay so late as December; and since their appearance is so 
casual and irregular; sometimes not visiting certain districts 
for several years in any considerable numbers, while at other 
times they are innumerable. I have witnessed these migra- 
tions in the Genessee Country—often in Pennsylvania, and 
also in various parts of Virginia, with amazement; but all that I 
had then seen of them were mere straggling parties, when 
compared with the congregated millions which I have since be- 
held in our western forests, in the States of Ohio, Kentucky, 
and the Indiana territory. These fertile and extensive regions 
abound with the nutritious beech nut, which constitutes the 
