1910 J A. H. Wright, Early Records of the Passenger Pigeon. 437 



I had frequently heard of the fecundity of this bird and never 

 gave credit to what I then thought inclined to the marvellous; 

 but really the most fervid imagination cannot conceive their 

 numbers. Their noise in the woods was like the continued roaring 

 of the wind, and the ground may be said to have been absolutely 

 covered with their excrement. The young ones which we killed 

 were nearly as large as the old; they could fly about ten steps, 

 and were one mass of fat; their craws were filled with acorns and 

 the wild pea. They were still reposing on their nests, which were 

 merely small bunches of sticks joined, with which all the small 

 trees were covered. Met four canoes of the Sacs, with wicker 

 baskets filled with young pigeons. They made motions to ex- 

 change them for liquor, to which I returned the back of my hand." 



Later, in the same year, we have another note of interest when 

 Thomas Ashe, while at Erie, Pa., in December, 1806, finds the 

 same fondness for salt springs which the Jesuits remarked in 1656. 

 He writes ^ as follows : " The salt lake and springs are also fre- 

 quented by all the other kinds of beasts, and even by birds; and 

 from the most minute enquiries, I am justified in asserting that 

 their visitations were periodical; except doves, which appear to 

 delight in the neighborhood of impregnated springs, and to make 

 them their constant abode. In such situations they are seen in 

 immense numbers, as tame as domestic pigeons, but rendered 

 more interesting by their solitary notes and plaintive melody." 



The succeeding year Pursh makes a botanical observation which 

 is interesting in this connection. When at Martin Creek, Pa., he 



says:^ "This morning I took an excursion accompanied by 



who wanted to show me the Leek or Pigeon pea, as he calls it ... . 

 The Pigeon berries or Pigeon peas we could not find, untill we re- 

 turned to the house, where a place was where they commonly 

 grow: in howing up some ground they showed me the roots by 

 which I found them, to be probably nothing else, than the tuber- 

 culis of a species of Glycine, resembling marrowfat peas very 

 much : the pigeons scrach them up at certain times of the year and 

 feed upon them very greedyly." 



^ Ashe, Thomas, Esq. Travels in America. Performed in 1806. London, 

 1808, pp. 49, 50. 

 - Pursh, Frederick, Journal of. The Gardener's Monthly, Vol. XI, pp. 14, 15. 



