410 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 



species. It was conjectured, that the pigeons, whether owing to a 

 storm, mist, or snowfall, had been carried away to the sea, and then 

 on account of the darkness of the following night or from fatigue, 

 had alighted on the water and in that place and manner met their 

 fate. It is said that from that date no such tremendous numbers of 

 this species of pigeon have been seen in Pennsylvania. 



In the beginning of the month of February, about the year 1729, 

 according to the stories told by older men, an equally countless mul- 

 titude of these pigeons as the one just mentioned, if not a still larger 

 number, arrived in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Even extremely 

 aged men stated that on three, four, five, or several more occasions 

 in their lifetime they had seen such overwhelming multitudes in these 

 places; and even the parents of these people had in their turn told 

 them that the same phenomenon had occurred several times during 

 their own lives; so that 11, 12, or sometimes more years elapse 

 between each such unusual visit of pigeons. 



From Lawson's History of Carolina (p. 141), I see that in the winter 

 of 1707, which was the severest known in Carolina since it was settled 

 by Europeans, an equally awe-inspiring number of these pigeons had 

 made an appearance hi Carolina and the other southern English set- 

 tlements, driven thither by causes which I will now mention. 



The learned and observant Dr. Colden told me that during his stay 

 in North America, where he had been since the year 1710, at his 

 country place, Coldingham, situated between New York and Albany, 

 he had on two distinct occasions, although at an interval of several 

 years, witnessed the arrival of these pigeons in such great and unusual 

 numbers that during two or three hours, while they flew by his house, 

 the sky was obscured by them, and that they presented the appear- 

 ance of a thick cloud. 



All tlie old people were of the opinion that the months of Febru- 

 ary and March is the single season of the year when the pigeons swoop 

 down upon Pennsylvania and the adjacent English provinces in such 

 marvelous quantities; at other seasons of the year they are not to 

 be seen in any great numbers. 



The cause of their migrations from the upper part of the country 

 in such great quantities at this season is twofold — first, when there is 

 a failure of the crop of acorns and other fruit in the places where they 

 otherwise generally spend the winter, thus rendering their supply of 

 food insufficient to last until the ensuing summer; and, second, and 

 chiefly, when an unusually severe winter with abundant and long- 

 remaining snow happens to occur in their customary winter haunts, 

 thus covering the ground and making it impossible for them to secure 

 the acorns, beechnuts, and other fruit and seeds on which they otherwise 

 feed at this season; in such cases they are forced to leave these locali- 

 ties and seek their food down along the seacoast, where the winters, 



