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15 May 2014

Innumerable Flocks of Visiting Pidgeons

Wileksbarre [sic], (Penn.) January 20.

Our sportsmen have had fine fun this week past. The valley has been visited by innumerable flocks of pidgeons. They thing is quite unusual at this season. They are very fine and fat. Several good shots have been made — and Mr. L. Yarington killed 14 at one discharge of his gun. Whether they have been driven from their winter residence at Florida, and the neighborhood of New Orleans, by the battles fighting there, I presume not to conjecture. They have heretofore been caught with rice in their crops, which indicates their southern residence, and the rapidity of their flight. By the by, I have heard it said, and I think it probable, that the war on the Lakes has driven from thence the wild geese that used to breed there in such abundance.

January 26, 1815. Wild pidgeons. Wileksbarre Evening Post 3888: 3. Also: January 31 1815 in Salem Gazette 29(9): 3; February 4th in the Salem Gazette and Portsmouth Oracle; January 26 in New York Evening Post.