Page images
PDF
EPUB

The Nestor of the Farms, in his excellent article upon "Wild Pigeons" (see page 193), says that he has found no evidence to show that they were in New England in the days of the pioneers, and asks if any one can throw any light on the subject. Permit me to add that the first settlers of the country bordering on the Ohio River found them numerous in that region. According to the accounts of these pioneers they used to disappear suddenly early in the summer and reappear as mysteriously in the fall Is it therefore unreasonable to suppose that they migrated to New England for that period, just as wild geese and others of the feathered families drifted back and forth between the sunny south and the northland. These migrations seem to have begun about 1790 and stopped in 1870. It is claimed that a few are still seen in New Hampshire, but personally I cannot vouch for the truth of this. Should be pleased to hear from others.

Replies

G. W. B.

6. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, members of the Church of England who had formed their ideas of church government from Calvin were persecuted, and then, in 1564, they received the name of "Puritans." They were called thus because of the gravity of their manner, the austerity of their lives and the severe precision of their judgment. On account of the persecution against them they left their native land to found homes in the New World and, before a single Dutchman had visited America, they or their ancestors settled this country, taking out their patent, which covered the country from Acadia to Carolina, under the name of Virginia.

Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon of New Haven said:

Laws, Freedom, truth and faith in God

Came with those exiles from o'er the waves.

And where their pilgrim feet have trod,

The God they trusted guards their graves.

America owes a debt she can never pay to those sturdy

New Englanders.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
« EelmineJätka »