Although The Flocks Are, In Such Extremities,
Very Numerous; Yet They Are Not To Be Mention'd In Comparison With
The
Great and infinite Numbers of these Fowl, that are met withal
about a hundred, or a hundred and fifty, Miles
To the Westward of the Places
where we at present live; and where these Pigeons come down, in quest of
a small sort of Acorns, which in those Parts are plentifully found.
They are the same we call Turky-Acorns, because the wild Turkies
feed very much thereon; And for the same Reason, those Trees that bear them,
are call'd Turky-Oaks. I saw such prodigious Flocks of these Pigeons,
in January or February, 1701-2, (which were in the hilly Country,
between the great Nation of the Esaw Indians, and the pleasant Stream
of Sapona, which is the West-Branch of Clarendon, or Cape-Fair River)
that they had broke down the Limbs of a great many large Trees
all over those Woods, whereon they chanced to sit and roost;
especially the great Pines, which are a more brittle Wood,
than our sorts of Oak are. These Pigeons, about Sun-Rise,
when we were preparing to march on our Journey, would fly by us
in such vast Flocks, that they would be near a Quarter of an Hour,
before they were all pass'd by; and as soon as that Flock was gone,
another would come; and so successively one after another,
for great part of the Morning. It is observable, that whereever these Fowl
come in such Numbers, as I saw them then, they clear all before them,
scarce leaving one Acorn upon the Ground, which would, doubtless,
be a great Prejudice to the Planters that should seat there,
because their Swine would be thereby depriv'd of their Mast.
When I saw such Flocks of the Pigeons I now speak of, none of our Company
had any other sort of Shot, than that which is cast in Moulds,
and was so very large, that we could not put above ten or a dozen of them
into our largest Pieces; Wherefore, we made but an indifferent Hand
of shooting them; although we commonly kill'd a Pigeon for every Shot.
They were very fat, and as good Pigeons, as ever I eat.
I enquired of the Indians that dwell'd in those Parts, where it was
that those Pigeons bred, and they pointed towards the vast Ridge of Mountains,
and said, they bred there. Now, whether they make their Nests
in the Holes in the Rocks of those Mountains, or build in Trees,
I could not learn; but they seem to me to be a Wood-Pigeon,
that build in Trees, because of their frequent sitting thereon,
and their Roosting on Trees always at Night, under which
their Dung commonly lies half a Foot thick, and kills every thing that grows
where it falls.
{Turtle Doves.}
Turtle Doves are here very plentiful; they devour the Pease; for which Reason,
People make Traps and catch them.
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