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



seeing. . . . great many Pigeons, several of which we shot. ..." 

 On August 5, at "Bear Creek," they "Started at 4 a. m. passed 

 'Bear Creek' on the West and at breakfast time stopped at a small 

 Island, where we saw a large flock of pigeons, and secured 8 of 

 them for our dinner." The year following, 1821, Schoolcraft, 

 observed l " the beautiful passenger pigeon. " In Missouri, 1828, 

 Flint says: 2 "Turtle doves are always numerous, as in some sea- 

 sons are the wild pigeons." In 1832 he observes that 2 "Pigeons 

 sometimes are seen in great flocks. Their social and gregarious 

 habits incline them to roost together, and their places of resort 

 are called 'pigeon roosts.' In these places they settle on all the 

 trees for a considerable distance round, in such numbers, as to 

 break off the branches." The same year Schoolcraft, in a 'Narra- 

 tive of an Expedition through the Upper Mississippi to Itasca 

 Lake,' etc., in 1832 (New York, 1834, pp. 54, 106), "saw. . . . the 

 common pigeon, which extends its migrations over the continent." 



The next year (July, 1833), at Big Muddy River, Maximilian, 

 Prince of Wied, in his ' Travels in the Interior of North America,' 

 says: 3 "Messrs. Bedmer and Mitchell made an excursion into the 

 wood, where they saw many wild pigeons, . . . . " At old Fort 

 Clarke they found the wild pigeon, also along Cannonball River, 

 N. D. In 1834, John K. Townsend made 'A Journey across the 

 Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River,' and says, 4 "when be- 

 yond St. Charles, Mo., March 31, in the morning, we observed 

 large flocks of wild pigeons passing over . . . . " At Powder Creek, 

 August 28, he says, "Game has been exceedingly scarce, with the 

 exception of a few grouse, pigeons, " 



One year later, in November, 1855, Dr. Williamson, when among 

 the Dahkotahs, wrote to the ' Cincinnati Journal ' that 5 " Exclu- 

 sive of their corn, their feed consists .... in the summer, [of] roots, 

 fish, wild pigeons, and cranes." In 1837, Alphonso Wetmore, 



i Schoolcraft, H. R. Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley. 

 New York, 1825, p. 72. 



- Flint, T. A Condensed Geography and History of the Western States, etc. 

 Cincinnati, 1828, Vol. II, p. 73; also The History and Geography of the Mississippi 

 Valley, Cincinnati, 1832, Vol. I, pp. 72, 200. 



3 Early Western Travels, Vol. XXIII, pp. 32, 250; XXIV, p. 86. 



* Early Western Travels, Vol. XXI, pp. 126, 269. 



s Neill, Edward Duffleld. The History of Minnesota, etc., Philadelphia, 1858, 

 p. 445. 



