19H J Wright, Early Records of the Passenger Pigeon. 429 



plenty almost everywhere, and induced a return more frequently 

 than now: They breed chiefly to the northward." 



Of this species in Pennsylvania, William Bartram, in 1791, 

 writes as follows : : " These arrive in Pennsylvania in the autumn, 

 from the North, where they continue during the winter, and return 

 again the spring following, I suppose to breed and rear their young; 

 and these kinds continue their journies as far South as Carolina 

 and Florida. In 1807 (July 31) at Presque Isle, Schultz records 2 

 the "pigeon." In 1819, C. B. Johnson reports that 3 "Wild 

 pigeons commonly visit this place in the spring and autumn; 

 when their numbers are truly astonishing. Flocks of them are 

 sometimes seen, so large as to contain millions; their flesh is dark, 

 and, when fat, very good." Lastly, at Allentown, Pa., about 

 Sept. 10, 1832, Maximilian, Prince of Wied, says, 4 " the wild 

 pigeons passed by in large flocks. 



Virginia and Maryland. 



In Virginia and Maryland we naturally would expect several 

 early records of the pigeon, for many of the earlier scribes gave 

 most of their attention to the colonies about the Potomac. 



The first record by William Strachey (1610?— 1612?) is interest- 

 ing partly from its quaintness : 5 "A kind of wood-pidgeon we 

 see in the winter time, and of them such nombers, as I should 

 drawe from our homelings here (such who have seene, perad venture, 

 scarce one more then in the markett) the creditt of my relation 

 concerning all the other in question, if I should expresse what 

 extended flocks, and how manie thousands in one flock, I have 

 seene in one daie, wondering (I must confesse) at their flight, 

 when, like so many thickned cloudes, they (having fed to the nor- 

 ward in the daye tyme) retourne againe more sowardly towards 



1 Bartram, William. Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, 

 East and West Florida, etc. Philadelphia, 1791, Part II, p. 289. 



2 Schultz, Christian. Travels, etc., 2 vols., N. Y., 1810, Vol. I, p. 47. 



3 Johnson, C. B. Letters from the British Settlements in Pennsylvania. Phila- 

 delphia and London, 1819, p. 55. 



* Early Western Travels, Vol. XXIIi, p. 127. 



6 Strachey, Wm. Historie of Travale into Virginia. Hakluyt Soc, London, 

 1849, p. 126. 



