CHAPTER VII 

 Netting the Pigeons 



By William Brewster, from "The Auk," a Quarterly Journal of 

 Ornithology, October, 1889. 



IN the spring of 1888 my friend, Captain Bendire, 

 wrote to me that he had received news from a 

 correspondent in central Michigan to the effect 

 that wild pigeons had arrived there in large numbers 

 and were preparing to nest. Acting on this informa- 

 tion I started at once, in company with Mr. Jona- 

 than Dwight, Jr., to visit the expected "nesting" and 

 learn as much as possible about the habits of the 

 breeding birds, as well as to secure specimens of their 

 skins and eggs. 



. . . Pigeon netting in Michigan is conducted as 

 follows: Each netter has three beds; at least two, and 

 sometimes as many as ten "strikes" are made on a single 

 bed in one day, but the bed is often allowed to "rest" 

 for a day or two. Forty or fifty dozen birds are a good 

 haul for one "strike." Often only ten or twelve dozen 

 are taken. Mr. Stevens' highest "catch" is eighty-six 

 dozen, but once he saw one hundred and six dozen cap- 

 tured at a single "strike." If too large a number are 

 on the bed, they will sometimes raise the net bodily and 



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