Efforts to Check the Slaughter 83 



person of "Uncle Len" Jewell, of Bay City, an old 

 woodsman and "land-looker." Len had for several 

 weeks been looking land in the upper peninsula, and was 

 on his return home. At our solicitation he agreed to 

 remain for two or three days, and co-operate with us. 

 In the village nothing else seemed to be thought of but 

 pigeons. It was the one absorbing topic everywhere. 

 The "pigeoners" hurried hither and thither, comparing 

 market reports, and soliciting the latest quotations on 

 "squabs." A score of hands in the packing-houses were 

 kept busy from daylight until dark. Wagon load after 

 wagon load of dead and live birds hauled up to the 

 station, discharged their freight, and returned to the 

 nesting for more. The freight house was filled with 

 the paraphernalia of the pigeon hunter's vocation, while 

 every train brought acquisitions to their numbers, and 

 scores of nets, stool-pigeons, etc. 



The pigeoners were everywhere. They swarmed in 

 the hotels, postoffice, and about the streets. They 

 were there, as careful Inquiry and the hotel registers 

 showed, from New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, 

 Michigan, Maryland, Iowa, Virginia, Ohio, Texas, 

 Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, and Missouri. 



Hiring a team, we started on a tour of Investigation 

 through the nesting. Long before reaching it our course 

 was directed by the birds over our heads, flying back 

 and forth to their feeding grounds. After riding about 

 fifteen miles, we discovered a wagon-track leading into 



