8 The Passenger Pigeon 



for a father or an uncle to reinforce my protests and 

 there is a pretty row which ends in the interloper taking 

 to his heels to wait for a more propitious occasion. 



"When we are ready to carry our birds home we 

 pull out the four long tail-feathers and knot them 

 together at the tips. Then the quill ends are stuck 

 through the soft part of the lower mandible, and the 

 birds are strung together, eight or ten in a string. 

 These strings are bunched together by tying the quill 

 ends of the feathers, and we have our game festooned 

 in compact shape for the triumphal march homeward 

 bound." 



Alas, the pigeons and the frosty morning hunts and 

 the delectable pigeon-pie are gone, no more to return. 

 They are numbered with those recollections which help 

 to convince me that the boys of to-day don't have as 

 good times as we youngsters did in the prime of our 

 busy out-door world. 



