192 The Passenger Pigeon 



an arboreous situation. The gentlemen number them 

 among the many delicacies the Hudson's Bay affords 

 our tables. It is a hardy bird, continuing with us until 

 December. In summer their food is berries, but after 

 these are covered with snow, they feed upon the juniper 

 buds. They lay two eggs and are gregarious. About 

 1756 these birds migrated as far north as York Fac- 

 tory, but remained only two days." 



In a report issued in 1795, Samuel Hearne also re- 

 ports the birds being abundant inland from the southern 

 portion of Hudson's Bay, but states that, though good 

 eating, they were seldom fat. 



The first provincial record is that made by Sir John 

 Richardson in 1827, in which he says: "A few hordes 

 of Indians who frequent the low floods districts at the 

 south end of Lake Winnipeg subsist principally on the 

 pigeons during the period when the sturgeon fishing is 

 unproductive and the wild rice is still unripened, but 

 farther north the birds are too few in numbers to fur- 

 nish material diet." 



I presume that he means farther up the Lake Winni- 

 peg shores, since Hutchins and Hearne both reported 

 them common nearer Hudson's Bay. 



The early records of the birds in eastern Canada in 

 later years corroborate the earlier statements of Wilson 

 and Audubon in almost every particular; and one ac- 

 quainted with the timbered conditions of the country 

 to the immediate west of the Red River Valley and 



