344 AMERICAlSr GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



dainty morsels brings its congeners beside it in such 

 nnmbers that they stand on each other so thickly that 

 only a mass of pointed tails can be seen. The decisive 

 moment has then arrived, and at a signal from one of 

 the netters, the strings of the seine are pulled, and it falls 

 npon the dense mass of struggling, startled birds. It is 

 not an uncommon thing to trap from two to three hun- 

 dred pigeons at every fall of the net, and as the falls are 

 numerous throughout the day, one may imagine how 

 many are captured. 



Trapping pigeons on salted or baited ground does not 

 require so much tact and experience as trapping them 

 when they are flying over a net. This latter method re- 

 quires live pigeons as decoys, and is somewhat cruel, as 

 the decoys have their eyes sewn uj) and a light weight 

 fastened to their legs to prevent them from flying away. 

 These are thrown into the air when a flock is passing by, 

 to attract its attention, while trained stools — that is, 

 pigeons trained or forced to act as if they were alighting 

 — are worked industriously at the same time. If these 

 bring down the flight the net is sprung and fastened at 

 the four corners; the captives are then taken out and 

 placed in coops, which stand ready to receive them. The 

 best time for netting is the morning and evening. The 

 catch varies from nothing to a thousand or more per day 

 for each man. From five hundred to a thousand men 

 are sometimes engaged in trapping in a single roost, 

 and they keep at the business as long as it pays. The 

 average i^rice of dead birds is from fifteen to fifty 

 cents a dozen, and of live birds, from thirty to seventy- 

 five cents a dozen. Buyers, who are liberally supplied 

 with barrels and ice, accompany the netters and shoot- 

 ers to the pigeonry, and make their purchases as rapidly 

 as they can, in order to be first in the market. When 

 the squabs appear, another raid is made on the roosts, as 

 these are considered equal to quail in delicacy of flavor. 



