Vol. XXVIII 

 1911 



J Wright, Early Records of the Passenger Pigeon. obi 



So few are now found in the forests and on the mountains, that 

 the account given by the first settlers of their numbers and multi- 

 plication seems almost incredible .... The progress of civilization 

 and refinement; and the clearing of the hills and vallies have much 

 lessened the number of these birds, or driven them to other regions." 



New York. 



In the seventeenth century the early writers quite frequently 

 remarked the abundance of the pigeons in the New Netherlands, 

 and we have in this century alone nine or ten such records. First 

 of all comes YVassenaers's observation that 1 "Pigeons fly wild, 

 they are chased by the foxes like fowls." In 1625 John de Laet 

 says 2 that when Hudson was near the present city of Hudson 

 "two men were also despatched at once with bows and arrows in 

 quest of game, who soon after brought in a pair of pigeons which 

 they had shot." 



In his 'Voyages from Holland to America,' 1632-1644, DeVries 

 mentions pigeons in three different instances. In one case he 

 remarks, 3 ' 'There are .... pigeons which fly together in thousands, 

 and our people sometimes shoot thirty, forty, and fifty of them at a 

 shot." In another place he speaks of them as follows: "Pigeons, 

 at the time of year when they migrate, are so numerous, that the 

 light can hardly be discerned where they fly .... I have also seen, 

 at different times, thirty to thirty-four pigeons killed at one shot, 

 but they are not larger than turtle-doves, and their bodies are 

 exactly like those of the turtle-doves in Fatherland, except they 

 have longer tails." 



In 1644 Megalopensis practically reiterates the same observa- 

 tions. 4 "In the forests here there are also many .... pigeons 

 that fly in flocks of thousands, and sometimes 10, 20, 30, and 

 even 40 and 50 are killed at one shot." In his second voyage into 



i Wassenaers, Historie Van Europa. Amsterdam, 1621-1632. Documentary 

 History of New York, Vol. Ill, Albany, 1850, p. 3. 



2 Laet, John de. The New World, or A Description of the West Indies. Ley- 

 den, 1625. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., Vol. I, 1841, p. 300. 



3 DeVries, D. P. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., New Series, Vol. Ill, 1857, pp. 58, 

 90, 110. 



4 Megalopensis, Johannes Junior. A Short Sketch of the Mohawk Indians in 

 New Netherlands, 1644. N. Y. Hist, Soc. Coll., N. S., Vol. IV, 1857, p. 150. 



