66 Kalm, Wild Pigeons in North America. |_Jan. 



taken much pains to tame these birds, although with but little 

 success. It is very easy, when they are kept in suitable quarters 

 to make them so tame as to feed from one's hands, in the manner 

 of any other domesticated Pigeon; but as soon as they are let 

 out into the open hardly a few days pass before they fly away to 

 the woods, nevermore to return. It was, however, emphatically 

 asserted, that some had succeeded in taming them to the same 

 extent as the domesticated Pigeons. 



As they fly in great flocks and keep close together, whether on 

 the wing, on the ground or in the trees, so poor a marksman as to 

 fail to make a hit is difficult to find. Several persons told me that 

 a man who lived at Schenectady, between Albany and Col., John- 

 son's farm, had killed 150 of these birds with two discharges 

 of birdshot, and in Canada there is said to have been several 

 cases where 130 had been killed in a single shot. 



Their flesh is a delight to the epicure, and especially is the meat 

 of the young Pigeons scarcely second in delicacy to that of any 

 other bird. 



The great French Admiral Marquis de la Galissoniere, who 

 in deep knowledge of various sciences, but especially in natural 

 history and its advancement, has had or has very few equals, 

 and who at the time of my arrival in Canada occupied the office 

 of Governor-General of that country, told me that he had once 

 brought with him several of these Pigeons from Canada to France, 

 and that he had allowed them to escape in the French forests. 

 At this time he had again collected a great number of live birds 

 which in the fall of 1749 he brought with him to France, enclosed 

 in large cages, in order to set them free in the woods, upon his 

 safe arrival there, with the intention of introducing this handsome 

 as well as useful American bird into Europe. 



In addition to the authors referred to above, the following 

 learned men have also mentioned something in their writings 

 concerning these Pigeons, namely: P. de Charlevoix, Histoire de 

 la Nouvelle France, T. V, pp. 251-252; Salmon's Modern History, 

 Vol. Ill, p. 440; Williams' Key into the Language of America, p. 91. 

 Others whom I have not had the opportunity of seeing may also 

 have mentioned something concerning this subject, but they have 

 at least related nothing of any particular value. 



