Miscellaneous Notes 



219 



they supply the inhabitants with a material part of their 

 subsistence, and are sold in the market at Quebec re- 

 markably cheap, often as low as a shilling per dozen, 

 and sometimes even at a less rate. It appears that the 

 pigeon prefers the loftiest and most leafless tree to 

 settle on. In addition to the natural beauty of St. Ann 

 and its environs, the process by which the inhabitants 

 take the pigeons is worth remarking. Upon the loftiest 

 tree, long bare poles are slantingly fixed; small pieces 

 of wood are placed transversely across this pole, upon 

 which the birds crowd; below, in ambush, the sportsman 

 with a long gun enfilades the whole length of the pole, 

 and, when he fires, few if any escape. Innumerable 

 poles are prepared at St. Ann for this purpose. The 

 other method they have of taking them is by nets, by 

 which means they are enabled to preserve them alive, 

 and kill them occasionally for their own use or for the 

 market, when it has ceased to be glutted with them. 

 Behind Madam Fontane's this sport may be seen in per- 

 fection. The nets, which are very large, are placed at 

 the end of an avenue of trees (for it appears the pigeons 

 choose an avenue to fly down) ; opposite a large tree, 

 upon erect poles two nets are suspended, one facing the 

 avenue, the other the tree; another Is placed over them, 

 which is fixed at one end, and supported by pulleys and 

 two perpendicular poles at the opposite; a man Is hid 

 in a small covered house under the tree, with a rope 

 leading from the pulleys In his hand. Directly the 



