The Western advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1872-1874, 1874-07-18

" hen" after hen" rises upward, anu the
armies Of the Amazons 60 out to the east
and north. Toward nine o'clock the
scene is indescribable. 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 sal''ss de tou'tes
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 a 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 slaughter as marked the coup
d'etut. Poles and clubs are the weapons,
and at every sweep a 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
it be said that the birds often settle so
thickly that boughs as large in cir
cumtcrCnCe as a. 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
i'll the year, the hogs, fatten on the I'm.
gathered hecatombs that are left dead OF
| to die in the grass.
The shotgun and the net arc the prin
cipal weapons affected by the hunters
The beach of Crystal Lake, where the
waters were lowered .last year, atfording
il sheet of level sand some twenty-five
miles round and nearly half mile wide
is thickly dotted with the stands of tho
huntcrs-small huts of pine boughs in
which the hunter sits with his guns. Al
times poles are placed for roosts without
and decoys employed to induce the
birds, like Dilla, to come and be killed
a raking discharge sweeping them from
the poles literally by dozens. But wher
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
a larger capital. Round woodland
spring, where the birds will stoop tc
drink, the smooth ground is abundantly
spread with corn mingled with salt, thu
water of the spring being also salte(
with liberal hand. For several day!
the birds that go thither in search of foot
are allowed to take their fill and carry
home the good news. At last, CROWN!
bold by habit, they come not single spies
but in battalions, and settle down tt
'work" the ground systematically. The,
advanced en- ectelon, with this advantage
that being blessed with wings the rear
ward companies, as they find corn scarce
fly over the heads of the front companie
and settle upon unoccupied ground, il
turn to become again the rear guard
When, therefore, this sailed ground be
comes the regular resort of flights o
birds 1000 or 5000 strong the woodlan,
frce-lunch system is abolished, and til
birds are made to "pay with their pei
sons,' as the French would say Tn
nets suspended on stakes round tn
ground are struck, there is hurried an
thundcrous roar of wings as those mos
happy fly Oft, and the earth is covere
with a carpet of dark blue The ne
rustles and undulates with the efforts q
the imprisoned birds to escape The
the trappcr comes out and releases ther
one by one. If he is trapping for marke
he wrings their necks and they ar
barrcled and carted away. If 1T is il
tended to sell them alive they are place
in coops and shipped, or stored in barn
and houses. The biggest catch of ch
year has been 800 birds, though it is c
record that one trapper secured nearl
1900 at one strike.-Cor. Nelo 70,
WOrld