434 A. H. Wright, Early Records of the Passenger Pigeon. [qcu 



by, and then disappeared. He adds, that only the males are then 

 seen, but that the females come in the afternoon to go through the 

 same manoeuvre." 



On his journey from Pennsylvania to Owego, John Bartram 

 in 1743 found north of Oswego, N. Y. ^ "all the trees were crouded 

 with wild pigeons, which, I suppose, breed in these lofty shade 

 trees." 



Shortly afterwards Peter Kalm, a Swedish naturalist, spent 

 three years in travel in North America (1747-1750). In his 

 "Travels into North x\merica" he twice speaks of the wild pigeons. 

 First during October, 1748, he observes ^ that " In the same manner 

 I have seen loild Pigeons, which were made so tame as to fly out 

 and return again. In some winters there are immense quantities 

 of wild pigeons in Pensyhania." The other note ^ comes in 

 March, 1749, when "Wild Pigeons (Columba migratoria), flew in 

 the woods, in numbers beyond conception and I was assured that 

 they were more plentiful than they had been for several years past. 

 They came this week, and continued here for about a fortnight, 

 after which they all disappeared, or advanced further into the 

 country, from whence they came. I shall speak of them more 

 particularly in another place." This "another place" must be 

 in some other writings of Kalm than his Travels for I searched 

 these with this expressly in view. 



Some ten years later, the Rev. Andrew Bernaby, while travelling 

 from Rhode Island to Boston in the month of September, says:^ 

 "During the course of my ride from Newport I observed pro- 

 digious flights of wild pigeons: they directed their course south- 

 ward, and the hemisphere was never intirel}^ free from them. 

 They are birds of passage, of beautiful plumage, and are excellent 

 eating. The accounts given of their numbers are almost incred- 

 ible; yet they are so well attested, and opportunities of proving 

 the truth of them are so frequent, as not to admit of their being 



1 Bartram, John. Observations on the Inhabitants, etc., in Travels from Pen- 

 silvania to Lake Ontario. London, 1751, p. 36. 



2 Kalm, Peter. Travels into North America. Translated into English by J. R. 

 Forster. Warrington, 1770. Vol. I, p. 210. 



3 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 82. 



* Bernaby, Rev. Andrew. Travels through the Middle Settlements in North 

 America in the years 1759 and 1760. London, 1798. 3rd edition, pp. 101, 102. 



