The Passenger Pigeon 



even corduroy coats are rare. The powder horn is seen 

 as often as the copper flask, and one hunter has a shot 

 belt with two compartments instead of the EngHsh 

 pouch. Of guns the assortment is as varied as the num- 

 ber of hunters, but the old, hard-kicking army musket 

 with its iron ramrod is more popular than any other arm. 



"We reach the edge of the clearing not a minute too 

 soon. Now and then a distant shot tells us that we are 

 not the first hunters out afield this morning. The guns 

 are cracking everywhere along the road that skirts the 

 woodland, and back in, close to the 'chopping,' some 

 better wing-shots are posted by the openings into the 

 woods where the birds fly lower, but where the shooting 

 is more difficult. It is largely of the 'pick your bird' 

 style, for the flight of a pigeon is very swift, and when 

 they are darting among the tree-tops of a small forest 

 opening, rare skill is required to bag one's birds. 



"I prefer to take the flocks, even though they offer 

 me more distant targets, and soon my gun-barrels are 

 as hot as those of the rest of the skirmishers. Some- 

 times two or three birds drop from a flock at a single 

 discharge, and then several shots may not fetch from 

 on high more than one or two of the long tail-feathers 

 spinning and twisting to the ground. It Is fascinating 

 to watch the whirling, shining descent of one of these 

 feathers, and I pick up one and stick it in my cap as a 

 matter of habit. 



"This kind of pigeon shooting takes a good gun and 



