The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-07-18
THE GREAT PIGEON ROOST.
Forty Eight Square Miles of Michigan Gov
cred by Feathers--The Greatest Gathering
Ever Known--HOw the Birds Are Caught
and Killed.

Forty Eight square Miles of Michigan Gov
cred by Feathers--rhe Greatest Gathering
Ever known--How the Birds Are Caught
and Killed.
TRANSPORT, Wtch (JaEc 80, Correspondence IF
tie NeD York World
The description OF the funny fishery in
Mistral's Calendar, thrilling and picturesque
as ii is, would not transcend the description of
the great pigeon roost of 1874 in this (Bezie)
county. The scene is novel 10 an Eastern
visitor, and an account of it, though falling
far below reality, viii be received almost
with incredibly by an Eastern reader The
number of the birds this spring has exceed.
ed even anything recorded in the traditions
OF hunters and Oldest inhabitants. The mir.
aculous flight Of quaiis that fell by the camp
of the Israelites, days journey on the other,
and two cubits high upon the face of the
earth, is nothing to the Betsy River nest
ing" Imagine, if you ean a tract of land about
10 miles long and three wide, where every
bough is occupied by dozen nests and n
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 $50 20 400 men for six weeks or more
been engaged in trapping and killing with
out cessation or let. and vet not made the
numbers appreciably less; imagine sc square
miles of pigeons, and that is a scene. As
the old birds leave OF are destroyed by mil
lions, millions of young ones take the wing,
and almost daily ariuics of achievements
fly northward from fsr-away Kentucky and
Missouri, the beat OF whose wings and
whose countless numbers obscure the sky
and emit hollow roar as if tornado or thun-
derstorm were approaching.
There arc three regular flights" a day
two tom flights" and one ''hen-hight" At
early dawn the male birds set out flying to
the east and north 10 seek a breakfast of
seeds and berries, ten, twenty, or fifty miles
away, and by or halfpast 8 thesky is black
with the departing binds. They tower up in
great armies to u considerable height each
sheet OF birds-sheet IL tr'e word best de.
cribcs them-wavering s.oment like the
needle of the compass whefi disturbed, then
taking flight in the appointed direction with a
gnanImity and evenness of speed that would
laake one believe that every bird was apima.
ted by the same impulse at the same instant
An hour later not bird is 20 ee seen, hut TO
ward o'clock the rush of the returning ar
mics is heard. Squadron after squadron ar.
rives, ceaving the air with uGwearied wings
and unfailing sense, futterins, wheeling, and
descending, each division over its own dis
trict, and each bird over the nest of its faith
lful mate As tom" after ''tosaH returns 10
take his trick at the dometic helm, hen" aG-
ter "hen" Uses upward and the armies of
the AnaZons go out 10 the east and north.
Towards 0 O'Clock the scene is indescribable.
II is a very atmosphere of wings, earth and
| forest have been converted into feathers, and
the eye gazes down vistas of pigeons 10 far
horizons of SQUAD pies and saimiS de t0Wrfes
ga 'cdges. Metropolitan readers will imagine
a tract of woodland twice the width Of Man
haitian Island and twice as long as from the
Battery 60 Harlem River, birds arriving in
hocks of a hundred thousand, birds depart.
ing in flights as numerous, a very Broadway
IOfthe air, extending over a whole county.
BY and by the last female sutfragist departs,
and The meek males remain incubaiing
with a .faithfHlness and amenability 70 do.
nestle discipline that would delight the
sternest unfcathered sister In the middle of
the afternoon the "hens" return and the
"tOms" depart TO make an evening of II, re-
turning before or about sunset. The late