350 Wright, Early Records of the Passenger Pigeons. LJuly 



shoot them with fowling-pieces, loaded with the smallest shot. 

 Upon perceiving a flock, the Canadian hunter shouts, which 

 makes the pigeons start all at once, so that by shooting at random, 

 sometimes two or three hundred are wounded, and afterwards 

 knocked down with sticks. The hunters sell a part, and keep the 

 remainder for their own use; and these birds furnish soups and 

 fricassees, which are usually dressed with a cream sauce and small 

 onions [chives]. During the shooting season, pigeons are on every 

 table." (June 16, 1777.) The third and last note 1 is a mere 

 notice of a pigeon which flew by Mackenzie when in the Slave 

 Lake region. 



In the nineteenth century the record begins the very first year, 

 1800, when Harmon the North "West fur trader mentions 2 the 

 pigeons in two or three instances. On May 9, 1S00, while at Au 

 Chat he observes: "We arrived this morning, at this place, where 

 the North West Company have a small establishment; and I have 

 passed the afternoon, in shooting pigeons." August 2, 1800, the 

 Mouth of the River Winipick: "The after part of the day, I spent 

 in shooting pigeons, which I found to be numerous, as at this 

 season, red raspberries, and other kinds of fruit, are ripe, and exist 

 here in abundance." In the following year, May 2, at Montagne 

 Aiseau (or Bird Mountain) he says, "Of fowls, we have. . . .pigeons 

 . . . ." Six years later, in 1S07, George Heriot describes the species 

 as follows: 3 "The wood-pigeons are so multitudinous, that at 

 certain seasons they obscure the atmosphere in parts of the country 

 which are not much settled, and are frequently knocked down in 

 great numbers, by means of long poles. Their flight is so rapid, 

 that when two columns, moving in opposite directions at the same 

 height in the atmosphere, encounter each other, many of -them fall 

 to the ground, stunned by the rude shock communicated by this 

 sudden collision. Shot, if fired as they approach, will seldom 



' Mackenzie, Alexander. Voyages from Montreal on the River St. Laurence, 

 through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in 

 the Years 1789 and 1793. London, 1801, p. 81. 



2 Harmon, Daniel Williams. A Journal of Voyages and Travels in the Interior 

 of North America, between the 47th and 58th Degrees of N. Latitude, extending 

 from Montreal to the Pacific, etc. New York, edit. 1903, pp. 4, 22, 63. 



3 Heriot, George. Travels through the Canadas, etc. London, 1807, pp. 517, 

 518. 



