428 Wright, Early Records of the Passenger Pigeon. Lbct. 



Two years later (September 13, 1686, Green Spring), 'A Letter 

 from Doctor Moore Relating to the State and Improvement 

 of the Province of Pennsylvania' yields this note of interest: 1 

 "We have had so great abundance of Pigeons this Summer, that 

 we have fed all our Servants with them." About this same time, 

 Pastorius found 2 "pigions" in "great abundance" in Pennsyl- 

 vania. Several years later (1702), Holm, in speaking of birds and 

 fowls in New Sweden, notes 3 both "turtle-doves" and "pigeons." 



In verse we have two notes the first by Thomas Makin in 1729: 4 



" Here, in the fall, large flocks of pigeons fly, 

 So numerous, that they darken all the sky*" 



The other is undated and comes from John Holme. 5 



"The pidgeons in such numbers we see fly 

 That like a cloud they do make dark the sky; 

 And in such multitudes are sometimes found, 

 As that they cover both trees and ground: 

 He that advances near with one good shot- 

 May kill enough to fill both spit and pot." 



In 1741 Oldmixon merely mentions 6 pigeons as among the fowl 

 of Pennsylvania. In 1765 we reach our first extended statement 

 when Samuel Smith says : 7 " The wild pigeons, at three or four 

 seasons in the year, commonly pay a visit (except in seed time) 

 generally acceptable: They have not been observed of late years 

 so plenty as formerly; they then, sometimes, to avoid the north- 

 east storms, flew night and day, and thick enough to darken the 

 air, and break trees where they settled, and were more tame and 

 more wanted; all which made them an article of consequence to 

 the early inhabitants: The Indians, before the European settle- 

 ments, used every year regularly to burn the woods, the better to 

 kill deer; .... this practice kept the woods clean, so that the pigeons 

 readily got acorns, which then not being devoured by hogs, were 



i Perm. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. IV, p. 449. 



2 Memoirs Hist. Soc. Perm., Vol. IV, 1840, 91. (Part II.) 



a Mem. Hist. Soc. Perm., Vol. Ill, p. 41. (Part I.) 



* Proud, Robert. The Hist, of Pennsylvania, etc., Vol. II, 1798, p. 367. 



s Bull. Hist. Soc. Penn., Vol. I, 1845-47, p. 165. 



6 Oldmixon, John. Vide supra, Vol. I, p. 306. 



7 Smith, Samuel. The History of the Colony of Nova-Caesaria or New Jersey. 

 Burlington, N. J., 1765. 2nd edit., 1877, p. 511. 



