430 A. H. Wright, Early Records of the Passenger Pigeon. [oct^ 



set there for catching pigeons, from seven to eight hundred being 

 often taken at once." 



Of the abundance of pigeons Vivier among the lUinois writes 

 as follows : ^ " During a portion of the autumn, through the 

 winter, and during a portion of the spring, the country is overrun 

 with swans, ... .wild pigeons, and teal." Gravier on his voyage 

 through the Mississippi valley in 1700 says: ^ "We saw so great 

 a number of wood-pigeons that the sky was quite hidden by them. " 

 Or, early in 1616 Biard in Acadia says,^ "there are a great many 

 wild pigeons, which come to eat raspberries in the month of July, 

 . . . . " And, lastly, the Relations of 1662-63 give in some detail 

 the pigeons of the St. Lawrence county.^ "Among the birds of 

 every variety to be found here, it is to be noted that Pigeons 

 abound in such numbers that this year one man killed a hundred 

 and thirty-two at a single shot. They passed continually in 

 flocks so dense, and so near the ground, that sometimes, they were 

 struck down with oars. This season they attacked the grain 

 fields, where they made great havoc, after stripping the woods 

 and fields of strawberries and raspberries, which grow here every- 

 where underfoot. But when these Pigeons were taken in requital, 

 they were made to pay the cost very heavily; for the Farmers, 

 besides having plenty of them for home use, and giving them to 

 their servants, and even to their dogs and pigs, salted caskfuls of 

 them for the winter." 



Besides the foregoing citations there are among the Jesuit 

 Relations some three or foin* stray notes of hunting pigeons, the 

 most important being in Marquette's Journal (Illinois) where 

 he records ^ that " we killed 30 pigeons, which I found better than 

 those down the great river; but they are smaller, both old and 

 young." 



In New England, only shortly after the Jesuits began to record 

 the wild pigeon, do we find the first account of this species. A 

 Mr. Higgeson in 1629 writes of them as follows:^ "In the winter 



1 Jesuit Relations, Vol. LXIX, p. 145. 



2 Ibid., Vol. LXV, pp. 109, 111. 



3 Ibid., Vol. Ill, pp. 81, 83. 



4 Ibid., Vol. XLVIII, p. 177. 

 6 Ibid., Vol. LIX, p. 181. 



6 Higgeson, Mr. New England Plantations. Written in 1629. Mass. Hist. 

 Soc. Colls., Vol. I, p. 121. 



