19H J Wright, Early Records of the Passenger Pigeon. 4oO 



the flocks as they pass by, in great measure, obstruct the light of 

 the clay." He gives it also in his list of birds. 



Closely following the above list comes a very interesting dis- 

 cussion of this form. " Our wild pigeons are like the wood queese 

 or stock doves, only have a longer tail. They leave us in the sum- 

 mer. This sort of pigeon (as I said before) is the most like our 

 stock doves or wood pigeons that we have in England; only these 

 differ in their tails which are very long, much like a parrakeeto's. 

 You must understand that these birds do not breed amongst us, 

 (who are settled at and near the mouths of the rivers, as I have 

 intimated to you before) but come down (especially in hard winters) 

 amongst the inhabitants in great flocks, as they were seen to do 

 in the year 1707, which was the hardest winter that ever was 

 known since Carolina has been seated by the Christians .... 

 Although the flocks are, in such extremities, very numerous; 

 yet they are not to be mentioned in comparison with the great 

 and infinite numbers of these fowl that are met withal about a 

 hundred or a hundred and fifty miles to the westward of the places 

 where we at present live; and where pigeons come down in quest 

 of a small sort of acorns, which in those parts are plentifully found. 

 They are the same we call turkey acorns, because the wild turkies 

 feed very much thereon; and for the same reason those trees that 

 bear them are called turkey oaks. I saw such prodigious flocks 

 of these pigeons in January and February, 1701-2, (which were 

 in the hilly country between the great nation of the Esaw Indians 

 and the pleasant stream of Sapona, which is the west branch of 

 Clarendon or the Cape Fair river) that they had broke down the 

 limbs of a great many large trees all over those woods whereon they 

 chanced to sit and roost, especially the great pines, which are a 

 more brittle wood than our sorts of oak are. These pigeons, about 

 sunrise, when we were preparing to march on our journey, would 

 fly by us in such vast flocks that they would be near a quarter of 

 an hour before they were all passed by; and as soon as that flock 

 was gone another would come, and so successfully one after another 

 for the great part of the morning. It is observable that wherever 

 these fowl come in such numbers, as I saw them then, they clear 

 all before them, scarce leaving one acorn upon the ground, which 

 would, doubtless, be a great prejudice to the planters that should 



