o62 Wright, Early Records of the Passenger Pigeon. [july 



the upper country of the Iroquois (Onondaga mission) Radisson 

 found 1 "The ringdoves in such a number that in a nett 15 or 

 1600 att once might be taken." 



In 'The Representation of New Netherlands,' etc., Adrian van 

 der Donck enumerates 2 ' 'multitudes of pigeons resembling coal- 

 pigeons, but a little smaller," and in 'A Description of the New 

 Netherlands' (2nd edit., Amsterdam, 1656), he speaks of this 

 species at some length. 3 "The pigeons, which resemble coal 

 pigeons, are astonishingly plenty. Those are most numerous in 

 the spring and fall of the year, when they are seen in such numbers 

 in flocks, that they resemble the clouds in the heavens, and ob- 

 struct the rays of the sun. Many of these birds are shot in the 

 spring and fall, on the wing, and from the dry trees whereon they 

 prefer to alight, and will sit in great numbers to see around them, 

 spring and fall, on the wing, and from the dry trees whereon they 

 prefer to alight, and will sit in great numbers to see around them, 

 from which they are easily shot. Many are also shot on the ground, 

 and it is not uncommon to kill twenty-five or more at a time. The 

 Indians, when they find the breeding places of the pigeons, (at 

 which they assemble in numberless thousands,) frequently remove 

 to those places with their wives and children, to the number of 

 two or three hundred in a company, where they live a month or 

 more on the young pigeons, which they take, after pushing them 

 from their nests with poles and sticks." 



In 1670 Daniel Denton in 'A Brief Description of New York,' 

 etc., says: 4 "Wild Fowl there is great store of, as Turkies, . . . . 

 Pidgeons, and divers others," and in another note thinks of New 

 York as a place "where besides the pleasure in Hunting, he may 

 furnish his house with excellent fat Yenison, .... Pidgeons and the 

 like." The following year Montanus remarks: 5 "The pigeons fly 

 in such flocks that the Indians designedly remove to their breeding 

 places where the young birds, pushed by hundreds from their nests, 

 serve for food during a long month for the whole family." 



1 Radisson, Peter Esprit. Voyages of, etc., 1652-1684. Prince Soc. Publica- 

 tions, Vol. XVI, 1885, p. 118. 



2 N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., N. S., Vol. II, 1849, p. 265. 



3 N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., N. S., Vol. I, 1841, p. 173. 

 « Bull. Hist. Soc. Penn., Vol. I, 1845-47, pp. 6, 15. 



6 Montanus. Description of New Netherlands. Amsterdam, 1671. Doc. 

 Hist. New York (octavo ed.), Vol. IV, 1851, pp. 118, 123. 



