Pigeons.
Besides the foremention’d Birds of prey, there are abundance of Storks, Ravens, Crows, Owls, Swallows, Gold-finches, Ice-birds, Kites, Quails, Pheasants, and Winter Kings, and which are most remarkable for their rich Feathers, the Spechtes, they pick great holes in Trees, and make a noise as if a Man were cutting down a Tree. The Pigeons flie in such flocks, that the Indians remove with them to the place where they make their Nests, where the young ones being taken by hundreds, serve them for a Moneths Provision.
Pretty Birds.
Moreover, New York breeds a strange Bird about a Thumb long, full of glistering Feathers; it lives by sucking of Flowers like a Bee, and is so tender, that it immediately dies if water be spirted upon it; the Carcase being dry’d, is kept for a Rarity.
Turkies.
But this Countrey abounds chiefly in Turkies, whose plenty deserves no less admiration than their bulk, and the delicious taste of their Flesh, for they go feeding forty or fifty in a flock, and weigh sometime forty or fifty pound apiece; the Natives either shoot them, or take them with a Bait stuck on an Angle: In March and Harvest the Waters swarm with Geese, Teal, Snites, Ducks, and Pelicans, besides many strange sorts of Fowls not known in Europe.
Fish.
The Rivers and Lakes produce Sturgeon, Salmon, Carps, Pearch, Barbils, all sorts of Eels, and many other Fish which are taken near Water-falls: The Sea affords Crabs with and without Shells, Sea-cocks, and Horses, Cod, Whiting, Ling, Herrings, Mackrel, Flounders, Tar-buts, Tortels, and Oysters, of which some are a Foot long, and have Pearl, but are a little brownish.
Rattle-Snake.
Amongst the Poysonous Creatures which infest New York, the chiefest and most dangerous is the Rattle-Snake, whose description we have already had at large in New England.