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



apply the busy powers of claw and beak to obtain a share of the 

 hidden acorns that may be scratched up from beneath ..." 



In 1822, John Woods (Two Years Residence .... in the Illinois 

 Country, etc., London, 1822) writes that 1 "The birds [of the 



country] are . . . . , pigeons, doves, Pigeons are sometimes 



in immense flocks, smaller than the wild pigeons, but larger than 

 the tame ones of England. A great number of doves, much like 

 turtle doves." "In my two journeys I saw a great number of 

 wild-ducks and pigeons on the banks of the Wabash; although 

 a bad shot, I think if I had had a gun, I could have killed a great 

 many." His third and last note is September 1, 1820: "We 

 have had large flocks of pigeons, from the north, almost continu- 

 ally passing over us for the last week." 



On the Fox River, just before September 1, 1827, Thomas L. 

 M'Kenney found 2 "pigeons... numerous." In the same year 

 W. Bullock (Sketch of a Journey through the Western States 

 of America, etc., London), when at Cincinnati, Ohio, says, 3 "the 

 farmyard abounds with wild pigeons, as tame as our domestic 

 ones." The following year (1828) Timothy Flint records in Indi- 

 ana that 4 " in some seasons, wild pigeons are seen here in countless 

 numbers. Where they roost, the limbs of the trees are broken 

 off in all directions by their numbers." 



Of the period 1830-1840 one pioneer in Michigan says: 5 "Of 

 the pigeons [they came] by the million," and recalls "their digging 

 acorns out of the deep snow." In 1835 there appeared 'Sketches 

 and Eccentricities of Colonel David Crockett' in which a long 

 description of a pigeon roost appeared (pp. 193, 194.) "The 

 habits of the wild pigeon have long been a subject of much curiosity. 

 The great numbers in which they appear, and the singular pro- 

 pensity that they have to roost together, have for some time 

 been a source of speculation. They frequently fly as much as 

 eighty miles to feed, and return to their roost the same evening. 



i Early Western Travels, Vol. X, pp. 291, 315, 345. 



2 M'Kenney, Thomas L. Memoirs, Official and Personal, etc. 2 vols., New 

 York, 1846. Vol. I, p. 104. 



s Early Western Travels, Vol. XIX, p. 140. 



4 Flint, Timothy. A Condensed Geography and History of the Western States 

 on the Mississippi Valley. Cincinnati, 1828. Vol. II, p. 163. 



s Michigan Pioneer and Hist. Colls., Vol. XIV, p. 512. 



