(^. If. JMcrridiii — /iinfs of (\mneot!cnt. 



nn 



niysclf ol.scTvcd it in Idaho, \V voiniii-;-, aii<l Ctali. It w av nncf 

 coTiniioii tliroiiolKMit New Kiiglaiid, as attested l.y mimciuns <.ld 

 writers. Jossclyn must liave been blessed with a keen a|.|ietite and 

 an admirable diuestion, lor he says : "The turkie-I.uzzard, a kind ..f 

 kite, but as big as a turkie; brown of eolor, and very good nuat."* 



Note. — The IMaek \'idture, (\if/iarf<s iffr</f>/s (Kay) Lesson, may 

 sometimes oecnr as a rare straggU'r from the South, and the h'cv. .1. 

 Howard Hand writes nie that he thinks he has killed three speeimens 

 of it at Westbrook, Coim. (Aug. 10, Sept. 12 ami 21, 1874), but they 

 may have been young Turkey Buzzards. ITnfortunateiy the spcci- 

 mens were not preserved. Several individuals have been recorded 

 from MassachusettSjf and it has even straggled as far north as .Maine 

 (Calais, G. A. Boardman)J and Nova Scotia. 



Family, COLUMBID^. 



171. EctopisteS migratoria (Liune) Swainson. AVild Pifreon. 



Sometimes quite abundant during the migrations. A t'ow l»ree(l 

 (late in May). Arrives about the first of April (Apr. 2, 1S75, Saoe). 

 Mr. Coe tells me that numbers of them bred about Portland, Conn, 

 in 1875, and that a few generally nest there. 



Concerning the enormous Hocks of Wild I'igeons whieli iiassed to 

 and fro over the country in former years (and which, on a smaller 

 scale, are still to be met with in some parts of the West), Gov. Thomas 

 Dudley wrote, as early as 10:?1 : " Vpon the 8 of March, from after 

 it was faire day light, untill about 8 of the clock in the forenoone 

 there flew over all the tonnes in our plantacous soe many floeks of 

 doues, each flock conteyning many thousands and some soe many 

 that they obscured the lighte, that it passeth credit, if but the truth 

 should bee wi-itten, and the thing was the more sti'ange, because I 

 scarce remember to have scene tenne doues since I came into the 

 country. They were all turtles as a|)peared by diverse of them wee 

 killed flying, somewhat bigger than those of Eni'0]ie, and they Hew 

 from the north east to the south west ; but what it ])ortends 1 know 

 not."§ And in the following year (1632), Thonnis Morton, of Clif- 



* New England's Rarities Discovered. By John Josselyn, p. 11, 1<j72. 

 t Cones' List of tlie Birds of New Kuglnnd, p. 6, 1868 ; J. A. Aliens Rnvvr \iiuU 

 of Mass., p. 47, 1869 ; etc. 



X Am. Nat., vol. iii, p. 498, Nov., 1869. 



§ Reprinted in Force's liistoricul Tracts, Tract 4, p. 17-18. 



