Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1874-07-17

hem after "henp 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 a 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 satDlis de toatftes
sduodges. 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 flocks of hun
dred thousand, birds departing in flights
as numerous, 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 a dozen birds,
Drained, crippled or manned, tumble to
the earth. Scarcely less simple and
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
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 un-
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
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 a 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- eclel0n 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 a 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 che
year has been 800 birds, though it is of
record that one trapper secured nearly
1900 at one strike.-C0r. NeU York
World.