The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-07-14
BIRDS FOR THE TRAP.

A GIGANTIC PIGEON ROOST.
THE PIGEON COUNTRY IN MICHIGAN FIFTY
SQUARE MILES INHABlTED-THE MANNER
OF FEEDING AND TRAPPING THE QUANTI-
TIES SENT TO MARKET.
A correspondent of the New FORK World,
writing from Frankfort, Mich, says: The
description of the tuuny fishery in Mistral's
Calendar, thrilling and picturesque as it is.
would not transcend the description of the
great pigeon rOost of 1874 in this (Benzie)
county The scene is novel to an Eastern
visitor, and an account of it, though falling
far below reality, will be received almost
with iucredulity by an Eastern reader. The
number of birds this spring has exceeded
even ANYTHING recorded in the traditions of
hunters and oldest Inhabitants. The mirac-
ulous flight of quails that fell by the camp
of the Israelites, a days journey on this side
and days journey on the other side, and
two cubits high upon the face OF the earth, Is
as nothing TO the BETSY River nesting"
Imagine, If you can. a tract of land about !
I6 miles long and three wide, where every
bough is occupied by a dozen nests an
a hundred birds, where the air whirrs
from dawn till dark with ceaseless wings
going and coming, where the flights that
settle cover square acres with living carpet,
where from 80 to 400 men have for six
weeks or more been engaged in trapping and
killing without cessation or let, and yet not
made the numbers appreciably less; imagine
fifty square miles OF pigeons, and that is the
scene As the old birds Leave or are de-
stroved bv millions. millions of young ones
take the wing, and almost daily armies of
reinfOrcements fly nOrthward from far r-away
Kentucky and Missouri, the beat of whose
wings and whose countless numbers obscure
the sky aud emit hollow roar as if torn
ado or thunderstorm were approaching
There are three regular flights" day
two "tom-fiights'' and one "hen-hight." At
early dawn the male birds set out flying to
the east and nOrsh to seek breakfast of
seeds and berries, ten, twenty, or fifty miles
away, and by six or half-past six
THESE Is BLACK
with the departing birds. They tower up in
great armies to a considerable height, each
sheet of birds-sheet Is the word that best
describes them-wavering a moment like
the needle of the compass when disturbed,
then taking flight in the appointed 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 wing and unfailing sense, flutter-
ing wheeling, and descending, each division
over its own district each bird over the nest of
its faithful mate. AS ''tom" after "tom" re-
turns to take his trick at the domestic helm,
chen" after ''hen" arises upward, and the
mics of the AmiZODs go out to east and
north. Toward nine o'clock the scene is in
describable. 1t is very atmosphere OF
wings, earth and forest have been converted
into feathers, and the eye gazes down vistas of
pigeons 10 far horizons of squab pies and
salmis de tOurtes sauvages. Metropolitan
readers will Imagine tract of woodland
IN vxr.Ifh of Manhattan leland and
twice as long as from the battery to Harlem
river birds arriving in flOcks of hundred
thousand birds departing in flights as nu-
merous, very Broadway of the air, extend
ing over whole county. By and by the
lost female suffragiSt departs, and che meek
males remain incubating with faitt fulness
and amen2bility to domestic discipline that
would delight the sternest unfeathered sis
ter. 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 wnen
returning and fly very low
SWEEPING ALONG THE GROUND
till they get their bearings. Then begins
such slaughter as marked the coup d'etat
Poles and clubs are the weapons, and al
every sweep dozen birds, bained, crippled
manned tumble to the earth. Scarcely less
simple and efficient is the practice of rakine
them down at night with poles from the
lower branches of trees where they rOost
Let it be said that the birds often settle sc
thickly that boughs as large in circumfer.
ence as a mans thigh are broken off by the
weight, aud that the new and tender leave:
and shoots are blasted by the incumbent
mass. The foxes, and, later in the year
the hogs, batten on the ungathered beca
tombs that are left dead or to die in the
grass. The shot gun and the net are tht
principal weapons affected by the hunters
The beach OF fCrystal lake, where the water
were lowered last year, affording a sheet o
level sand some twenty-five miles round anC
nearly half2 mile wide, is thickly dotted
with the stands of the bunters-small hut
of pine bOughs in which the hunter sits will
his guns. At times poles are placed 70
roosts without and deeoys employed to In
duce the birds, like Dilla, TO come and b
killed, raking discharge sweeping then
from the poles literally by dozens. Blu
when thick flights are ofregGlar occurrence
there is nothing to do but to blaze away AM
pick up the dead. The nets do NOR
wholesale execution but require large
capital Round woodland spring. wher
the birds will stoop to drink, the smoot