94 C. H. Merriam Birds of Connecticut. 



ford's Inn, speaking of his impressions of the country, when first he 

 landed in New England, said : " The more I looked the more I liked 

 it. And when I had more seriously considered of the bewty of the 

 place, with all her faire indowments, I did not thinke that in all the 

 knowne world it could be paralel'd." " Contained within the volume 

 of the Land, Fowles in abundance, Fish in multitude, and discovered 

 besides ; Millions of Turtledoves one the greene boughes : which sate 

 pecking, of the full ripe pleasant grapes, that were supported by the 

 lusty trees, whose fruitfull loade did cause the armes to bend, which 

 here and there dispersed (you might see) Lillies and of the Daph- 

 nean-tree, which made the Lande to mee seeme paradice, for in mine 

 eie, t'was Natures Master-peece."* 



In looking over a curious old pamphlet, printed in 1630, and 

 entitled "New-England's Plantation. Or, a Short and trve descrip- 

 tion of the Commodities and discommodities of that countrey. 

 Written by a reuerend Diuine now there resident.", I find the follow- 

 ing notice of the Wild Pigeon : " In the Winter time I haue seene 

 Flockes of Pidgeons, and haue eaten of them : they doe flye from 

 Tree to Tree as other Birds doe, which our Pidgeons will not doe in 

 England: they are of all colours as ours are, but their wings and 

 tayles are fair longer, and therefore it is likely they fly swifter to 

 escape the terrible Hawkes in this Countrey."f Samuel Williams, 

 in his Natural and Civil History of Vermont (published in 1794), 

 writes as follows : " In the Wild Pigeon, the multiplying power of 

 Nature acts with great force and vigour. The male and female 

 always pair : They sit alternately upon the eggs, and generally hatch 

 but two at a time ; but this is repeated several times in a season. 

 The accounts which are given of the number of pigeons in the uncul- 

 tivated parts of the country, will appear almost incredible to those 

 who have never seen their nests. The surveyor, Richard Hazen, 

 who ran the line which divides Massachusetts from Vermont, in 1741, 

 gave this account of the appearances, which he met with to the west- 

 ward of Connecticut river. l For three miles together the pigeon's 

 nests were so thick, that five hundred might have been told on the 

 beech trees at one time ; and could they have been counted on the 

 hemlocks, as well, I doubt not but five thousand at one turn round.' 

 The remarks of the first settlers of Vermont, fully confirm this 

 account The settlement of the country has since set bounds 



* Reprinted in Force's Historical Tracts, Tract 5, p. 42. 



f Reprinted in Peter Force's Historical Tracts, vol. i, Tract 12, p. 11. 



