GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Abundance of Game found by Explorers and Colonists. 



When the settlement of America was begun, the number of 

 individuals of these species was beyond computation, and the 

 statements made by those who wrote about the game of the 

 country at that time seem utterly incredible when repeated 

 to-day. Nearly all the earlier explorers and travellers who 

 mention birds or mammals in their narratives tell of the 

 " great store " of fowl in the country. 



It is recorded that water-fowl, shore birds, Cranes and 

 Herons bred along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida, 

 and that they migrated back and forth along the Atlantic 

 seaboard in incredible numbers. Ruffed Grouse, Pinnated 

 Grouse, Bob-whites and Wild Turkeys were reported as 

 appearing in great flocks, not only in the interior of the 

 country, but along the coast, in suitable localities. We are 

 not now accustomed to regard the Atlantic seaboard as a 

 great breeding place and resort for water-fowl and game 

 birds, but the early explorers and colonists found it alive 

 with them, from the West Indies to Labrador. A few of 

 their statements may be cited here. 



Beginning with the West Indian records of the early 

 explorers, we find that George Percy of Captain John Smith's 

 company contributes a narrative in which he asserts that on 

 April 4, 1607, the company anchored at the Isle of " Virgines," 

 where, he says, they killed "great store" of wild -fowl; and 

 again he says: " On the nineth day of April, in the afternoone, 

 we went off with our boat to the He of Moneta, [Monica] 

 some three leagues from Mona [an island near Hayti]. After 

 wee got to the top of the He wee found it to bee a fertill and a 

 plaine ground, full of goodly grasse and abundance of Fowles 

 of all kindes. They flew over our heads as thicke as drops of 

 Hale: besides they made such a noise that wee were not able 

 to heare one another speake. Furthermore, wee were not able 

 to set our feet on the ground, but either on Fowles or Egges 

 which lay so thicke in the grasse. Wee laded two Boats full 

 in the space of three houres, to our great refreshing." ^ 



^ Tyler, Lyon Gardiner: Narratives of Early Virginia, 1907, p. 9. 



