American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-07-18

IMAGINE, if you can, tract OF lana
| about sixteen miles long and three wide,
| where every bough is occupied by dozen
| nests and a 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 go 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 apprcciably less; imagine nifty
| square miles of pigeons, and that Is the
scene AS the old birds leave or are de
stroyed by millions, millions of young
ones take the wing, and almost daily
armies of achievements fly northward
| from PARKWAY Kentucky and Missouri,
| the beat of whose wings and whose
| countless numbers obscure the sky and
emit IA hollow roar as if a tornado or
| thunder storm were approaching
| There are three regular . flights" a day
two tom lights" and one 9 hen flight"
At early dawn the male birds set out fly
| ing to the east and north to seek IA 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 Il considerable height, each sheet
of birds-shect is the word that best
| describes thcm-wavering moment
| like the needle of the compass when
disturbed, then taking flight in the APP
pointed direction with Il unanimIty and
evenncss 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, clcaving the air
| with unwearicd wings and untalling
sense, fluttering, 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 go out to the east
and north Toward nine o'clock the
scene is indescribable. 1t is II 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 salmis de tourtes
souroges. 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 tiocks of a hun
| bred thousand, birds departing in flights
| as numerous, a very Broadway of the air,
extending over Il whole county. By and
| by the last female sufl'ragst departs, and
| the meek males remain incubating. In
/ the mluule Oh INC tItcTnOoH tnt HtHS
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 rs marked the conp
detat 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 Il 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 hccatombs that are left dead or
| to die in the grass.
The shot gun and the net are the prin-
cipal weapons affected by the hunters.
| The beach of Crystal Lake, where the
waters were lowered last year, atfording
sheet of level sand some twenty-five
miles round and nearly half a 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 Dilfa, to come and be killed,
Il 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
a larger capital. Round woodland
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
| the birds that go thither in search of food
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- echelon, 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 Il 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 1t is in
tended to sell them alive they are placed
in coops and shipped, or stored in barns
and houses. The biggest catch of the
year has been 800 birds, though il is of
record that one trapper secured nearly
| WOrid.