218 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



extend over a distance of fifteen miles wide and forty 

 miles long. The shot was made near Hocooc, Okla- 

 homa, in 1882, after the birds had ceased their flights 

 north, the last of these being in 1875. Mr. Bennett 

 stopped netting in 1882. 



Netting pigeons was no small trick, according to 

 Mr. Bennett. In order to insure success it was neces- 

 sary to keep stool pigeons and flyers from one year to 

 another. When the flights of the pigeons began, the 

 pigoneers wrote letters and postals detailing the gen- 

 eral direction of the flight. In the spring, nets usually 

 were set in cornfields with the corn cut low in spots. 

 In the fall the nets were spread in buckwheat fields. 

 In preparing for a catch the pigeoneers concealed 

 themselves in a bough house, made from spruce or 

 other loose material. The net w^as set at one side of a 

 section of prepared earth, salt being whipped in, the 

 net being spread in narrow folds. One side was made 

 fast to the earth and the rope from tlie other was at- 

 tached to the ends of two spring poles that could be re- 

 leased from the bough house some fifty or sixty feet 

 away. Near the net was the stool with the stool pig- 

 eon. The bird was blinded temporarily by running 

 silk threads through the eyelids and tied so as to not 

 injure the sight. The stool pigeon would then sit 

 quietly and not flutter about so as to frighten away the 

 flocks that were sought by the trapper. 



When a flock came in sight, the flyers would be 

 sent up with twine attached. These birds would at- 

 tract the attention of the flock and cause it to land 



