8 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



fowl in abundance, such as Swans, Brant, Geese, Turkeys, 

 Cranes and Ducks. ^ 



William Strachey (1610) says, in his True Declaration of 

 Virginia: "The Turkyes of that Co un trie are great, and fat, 

 and exceeding in plentie. The riuers from August, or Sep- 

 tember, till February, are couered with flocks of Wildfoule; 

 as swannes, geese, ducke, mallard, teal, wigeons, hearons, bit- 

 ters, curlewes, godwights, plouers, snights, dottrels, cormo- 

 rants, in such abundance as are not in all the world to be 

 equalled." ^ 



Colonel Norwood (1649) states that great flights of fowl 

 frequented an island on which he was cast away off the coast 

 of Virginia.' 



John Clayton (1688), in a letter to the Royal Society, giv- 

 ing accounts of " several observables in Virginia," says that 

 Wild Geese and Brant in winter came in mighty flocks, with 

 wild Ducks innumerable.* 



Edward Williams, writing of " Virginia," states that wild- 

 fowl in their seasons were innumerable.* 



Thomas Glover (1676) says that on the bay and rivers 

 "feed so many wild fowl as in winter time they do in some 

 places cover the water for two miles." * 



The above accounts refer mainly to the southern and middle 

 portions of our Atlantic seaboard. Narratives of the Dutch, 

 who first settled New Netherlands (now part of New York, 

 New Jersey and the region along the Hudson), gave evidence 

 of the vast numbers of wild-fowl and game birds found there 

 during the early days of settlement. 



Johannes de Laet (1633) says: " Innumerable birds are also 

 found here, both large and small, those that frequent the 

 rivers and lakes, as well as the forests, and possess plumage of 

 great elegance and variety of colors." ^ 



Nicolaes van Wassenaer (1624) writes: "In their waters 



' Purchas, Samuel: His Pilgrimes, Glasgow, 1906, Vol. XIX, p. 209. 

 = Tracts by Peter Force, 1884, Vol. HI, Tract No. 1, p. 13. 

 » Ibid., Tract No. 10, p. 23. 

 ' Ibid., Tract No. 12, p. 33. 

 s Ibid., Tract No. 11, p. 48. 



s Glover, Thomas: An Account of Virginia, Philos. Tians. Royal Soc, June 20, 1676, reprint of 

 1904, p. 8. 



' Jameson, J. Franklin: Narratives of New Netherland, Am. Hist. Asso., 1909, p. 56. 



