THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 243 



and learn to gather np their wings without drooping 

 them. 



"In conclusion, I want to narrate a little incident 

 that happened this same old pigeon trapper tliat I have 

 just described. 



''He and his Brother M., had gotten ready to fish 

 for pigeons, and from the condition of the weather, 

 the pigeons were daily expected to appear. So with 

 set nets, pigeon on the stool, and flyers in the bough 

 house, they smoked their pipes, and waited for some- 

 thing to come. Something did come. About 2 o'clock 

 in the afternoon, a pigeon hawk looped down on the 

 lone stool pigeon sitting on the stool — struck it, but 

 on account of its being tied down, did not take it with 

 him. He circled, came back and alighted on it, and 

 was about to make his late dinner on the stool, when 

 the old man sprang the nets on him, and crawled out 

 and captured him alive. Of course, the atmosphere 

 was blue for a while, then the brothers held a council 

 of war on the hawk, and agreed to pick him all but 

 the wing and tail feathers, and let him go. He went, 

 but, divested of so much of his flying apparatus — 

 'looped the loop,' made the 'maple leaf whirl' and all 

 other difficult feats of flight." 



Mr. Chatham, under date of Nov. 13, 1918, writes as 

 follows : 



"Yours at hand and in reply to the salt beds for 

 catching pigeons, would state : They differed but little 

 from the field methods. A spot was selected in the 



