Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-07-23

WDere every DOuRu ID OCCuplcd uy duoLoi
nests and hundred birds, where the air
whirrs from dawn till dark with cease
less wings going and coming, where the
| flights that settle cover square acres with
a living carpet, where from $50 to 400
men have for six weeks or more been
| engaged in trapping and killing without
| cessation or let, and yet not made the
1 numbers appreciably less; imagine fifty
/ square miles of pigeons, and that is the
scene. As the old birds leave or are de-
stroycd by millions, millions of young
ones take the wing, and almost daily
armies of reinforcements fly northward
from PARKWAY Kentucky and Missouri,
| the beat of whose wings and whose
| countless numbers obscure the sky and
emit hollow roar as If tornado or
| thunderstorm were approaching.
There are three regular 8 flights" day
two tom-fights" andCne q hen-flight."
| At early dawn the male birds set out fly
| ing 70 the east and north to seek a break
| fast of seeds and berries, ten, twenty, or
fifty miles away, and by six or half-past
six the sky is black with the depart
ing birds They tower up in great ar
mics to considerable height, each sheet
of birds-sheet is the word that best
| describes them-wavering moment
| like the needle of the compass when
disturbed, then taking fight in the APP
| pointed direction with a unanimity and
| evenness of speed that would make one
| believe that every bird was animated by
| the same impulse at the same instant.
An hour later not bird is to be seen,
but toward eight o'clock the rush of the
returning armies is heard. Squadron
after squadron arrives, cleaving the air
with unwearied wings and unfailing
| sense, futtering, wheeling and descend
| ing each division over its own district,
each bird over the nest of its faithful
mate As tom" after "tom" returns to
| take his trick at the domestic helm,
"hen" after "hen" rises upward, and the
armies of the Amazons 20 out to the east
and north. Toward nine o'clock the
scene is indescrbable. 1t is very at
mosphere of wings, earth and forest have
| been converted into feathers, and the eye
gazes down vistas of pigeons to far hori-
IONS of squad pies and saInts de tourtes
sau0ages. Metropolitan readers will
| imagine tract of woodland twice the
| width Of Manhattan Island and twice as
| long as from the Battery to Harlem
| River, birds arriving in fiocks of hun
dred thousand, birds departing in flights
| as numerous, a very Broadway of the air,
extending over whole county. By and
| by the last female suffragist departs, and
| the meek males remain incubating. In
| the middle of the afternoon the "hens"
return and the "toms" depart to make
an evening of it, returning before or
about sunset. The late birds, who stay
out till dusk, having apparently the
latch.key to their several nests, seem
bothered when returning, and fly very
low, sweeping along the ground until
| they get their bearings. Then begins
such a slaughter as marked the coup
d'etat Poles and clubs are the weapons,
and at every sweep dozen birds,
Drained crippled or MANNED, tumble to
the earth. Scarcely less simple and
efficient is the practice of raking them
down at night with poles from the lower
| branches of trees where they roost. Let
| il be said that the birds often settle so
thickly that boughs as large in cir
| conference as mans thigh are
| broken off by the weight, and that the
| new and tender shoots are blasted by the
| incumbent mass. The foxes and, later
| in the year, the hogs, fatten on the I'M
gathered hecatombs that are left dead or
| to die in the grass
The shotgun and the net are the prin-
cipal weapons affected by the hunters.
The beach Of Crystal Lake, where the
waters were lowered last year, affording
| a sheet of level sand some twenty-five
miles round and nearly half mile wide,
| is thickly dotted with the stands of the
| hunters-small huts of pine boughs in
which the hunter sits with his guns. AT
| times poles are placed for roosts without
and decoys employed to induce the
birds, like Dilla, TO come and be killed,
raking discharge sweeping them from
the poles literally by dozens. But when
thick flights are of regular occurrence
there is nothing to do but to blaze away
| and pick up the dead. The nets
| do more wholesale execution, but require
spring, where the birds will stoop to
drink, the smooth ground is abundantly
spread with corn mingled with salt, the
water of the spring being also sailed
with liberal hand. For several days
are allowed to take their fill and carry
home the good news. At last, growing
bold by habit, they come not single spies
but in battalions, and settle down to
work" the ground Systematically. They
advanced en- echeloa, with this advantage
that being blessed with wings the rear
ward companies, as they find corn scarce
fly over the heads of the front companies
and settle upon unoccupied ground, in
turn to become again the rear guard.
| When, therefore, this sailed ground be
comes the regular resort of flights OF
birds 1000 or 5000 strong the woodland
free-lunch system is abolished, and the
birds are made to pay with their per
sons" as the French would say The
nets suspended on stakes round the
ground are struck, there is hurried and
| thunderous roar of wings as those most
happy fly off, and the earth Is covered
with carpet of dark blue. The net
rustles and undulates with the efforts OF
the imprisoned birds to escape. Then
| the trapper comes out and releases them
one by one If he is trapping for market
he wrings their necks and they are
barreled and carted away. If IT is in
tended to sell them alive they are placed
| in coops and shipped, or stored in barns
| and houses. The biggest catch of che
wear has been 800 birds, though it is OF
| record that one trapper secured nearly
1900 at one strike.--Cor. Neo Yorl
| World
1