

430 Wright, Early Records of the Passenger Pigeon. [oct. 



night to their roust; but there be manie hundred witnesses, who 

 maie convince this my report, if herein it testifieth an untruth." 



In 1612, Capt. John Smith writes: x "In winter there are plenty 

 of Swans, . . . .Pigeons." 'A Relation of Maryland,' 1635 practi- 

 cally repeats 2 the same observation. The next year (after Smith), 

 1613, Whittaker at Henrico writes to the same effect: 3 "In winter 

 our fields be full of Cranes, . . . .Pigeons, . . . . " Two years after- 

 wards Ralph Hamor found 4 " wilde Pigeons (in winter beyond 

 number or imagination, my selfe have seene three or foure houres 

 together flockes in the aire, so thicke that even they have shad- 

 dowed the skie from us) . . . . " In 1624, Thomas Hariot, in his 

 Historical Narrative, mentions 5 "Stockdoves," among the birds 

 of the region. In 1650 Edward Williams (2nd edit. London, 1650) 

 speaks very encouragingly of Virginia as follows : 6 " That no part 

 of this happy Country may be ungratefull to the Industrious, The 

 ayre it selfe is often clouded with flights of Pigeons . . . . " Some 

 twenty years later, Lederer found in his "several marches from 

 Virginia to the West of Carolina," etc. 7 , " great variety of excellent 

 Fowl, as .... Pigeons . . . . " 



Soon after we discover a note where we would least expect it. 

 This writer, with Dudley of Massachusetts, conceives of the flights 

 of pigeons as portents. In ' The Beginning, Progress, and Conclu- 

 sion of Bacons Rebellion in Virginia, in the years 1675 and 1676," 

 he writes: 8 "About the year 1675, appear'd three prodigies in that 

 country, which from th' attending disasters, were look'd upon as 

 ominous presages. The one was a large comet .... Another was, 

 Slights of pigeons in breadth nigh a quarter of the midhemisphere, 

 and of their length was no visible end; whose weights brake down 



i Smith, Capt. John, etc., Works of, 1608-1631. Edited by Edward Arber, 

 1S84. p. 60. 



2 Narratives of Early Maryland. New York, 1910, p. 80. 



3 Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes. By Samuel Purchas. 

 Glasgow, 1905-1907. Extra Series Hakluyt Soc, Vol. XIX, 1906, p. 155. 



4 Hamor, Ralph. A True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia, etc., till 

 the 18 of June 1614, etc. London, 1615. Richmond 1860, p. 21. 



5 Sir Walter Ralegh and his Colony in America. Prince Soc. Pub., Vol. XV, 

 1884, p. 218. 



5 Force, Peter. Tracts and Other Papers, etc. Vol. Ill, 1844, p. 12. 



7 Lederer, John. The Discoveries of, etc. By Sir William Talbot. London, 

 1672, p. 25. 



8 Force, Peter. Ibid., Vol. I, p. 7. 



