WILD PIGEON 115 



ago. I have noticed none in all walks, but G. Minott, 

 whose mind runs on them so much, but whose age and 

 infirmities confine him to his wood-shed on the hillside, 

 saw a small flock a fortnight ago. I rarely pass at any 

 season of the year but he asks if I have seen any 

 pigeons. One man's mind running on pigeons, he will 

 sit thus in the midst of a village, many of whose inhabit- 

 ants never see nor dream of a pigeon except in the pot, 

 and where even naturalists do not observe them, and he, 

 looking out with expectation and faith from morning 

 till night, will surely see them. 



Sej^t. 16, 1856. See a flock of pigeons dash by. From 

 a stout breast they taper straightly and slenderly to the 

 tail. They have been catching them a while. 



May 14, 1857. Abel Hosmer * tells me that he has 

 collected and sown white pine seed, and that he has 

 found them in the crop of pigeons. (?) 



Se^it. 30, 1857. Minott said he had seen a couple of 

 pigeons go over at last, as he sat in his shed. At first he 

 thought they were doves, but he soon saw that they were 

 pigeons, they flew so straight and fast. 



Sept. 9, 1858. R.^ says that he has caught pigeons which 

 had ripe grapes in their crops long before any were ripe 

 here, and that they came from the southwest. 



Sejjt. 13, 1858. A small dense flock of wild pigeons 

 dashes by over the side of the hill, from west to east, — 

 perhaps from Wetherbee's to Brooks's, for I see the 

 latter's pigeon-place. They make a dark slate-gray im- 

 pression. 



Sept. 23, 1858. Met a gunner from Lynn on the 

 ^ [A Concord farmer.] ^ [Israel Rice, the Sudbury farmer.] 



