. The hunter and the trapper in North America; or, Romantic adventures in field and forest . d a clause in their agreements providing that theyshould not have pigeons for dmner oftener than twicea week,—just as in Scotland the servants in the greatliouses made it an express condition that tliey should notbe compelled to eat salmon above throe times. One morning, in this same month of October 1848, onthe heights of the village of Hastings, which stretchesalong the Hudson River, I fired some thirty times intoa swarm of pigeons, securing a booty of one hundred andthiity-nine birds. Tliis number i
. The hunter and the trapper in North America; or, Romantic adventures in field and forest . d a clause in their agreements providing that theyshould not have pigeons for dmner oftener than twicea week,—just as in Scotland the servants in the greatliouses made it an express condition that tliey should notbe compelled to eat salmon above throe times. One morning, in this same month of October 1848, onthe heights of the village of Hastings, which stretchesalong the Hudson River, I fired some thirty times intoa swarm of pigeons, securing a booty of one hundred andthiity-nine birds. Tliis number included about eightyenormous birds, fat and plump as young chickens. I wasol)liged to hail a negro, who passed by the place where I PIGEONS AT HOME. 135 was seated ^\itll my feathered spoil; and I gave him halfa dollar to carry it to the steam-boat bound for NewYork. American pigeons are found everywhere in the terri-tory of the Union ; but, in general, these birds select thesecluded and unfrequented woods on the borders of thecivilized districts, and the vast deserts which abut on the. TUK . .^HJL > ; UliAKlt, AM* iliUrEL:T> prairies. The season of incubation offers a striking con-trast to the chaotic and confused scenes which I havebeen describing. If my readers accompanied me into theleafy depths of the forests of the Ohio and the Missis-sippi, they would hear nothing but incessant cooings;would be witnesses only of proofs of tender affection andmarks of tenderness on the part of the male pigeon to-wards his mate. Above their heads, in the tree-tops, theywould perceive a host of close-packed nests, constructed of 13G PIGEON-MASSACRE. interlaced and intexwoven twigs, so as to form a slightconcavity, in which two or three eggs are these the male and female sit alternately. Themale alone monnts guard, and protects his is he who goes forth in quest of provisions, and whoreturns in due time to place himself on the nest andshelter it
Size: 1968px × 1270px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectg, booksubjecthunting
