PIGEONS. 



275 



heights pour upon them a volley of short sticks, which compel 

 them to lower their flight towards the ground, when, if they 

 attempt to rise, the man in the nest immediately begins shak- 

 ing his airy perch as much as possible, and throwing upon the 

 affrighted birds sticks tied together in the form of a cross, 

 which make a whizzing sound as they fall. Impelled by this 

 united attack, the Pigeons rush forward to the head of the 

 gorge, and there meet their fate in the nets, which stop their 

 progress. By this means sometimes as many as two hundred 

 are caught at once. 



The American Wild Pigeons as well as our common Wood- 

 Pigeons, the Stock-Dove and Ring-Dove, usually build in 

 trees ; but not always, for in many situations they prefer holes 

 in rocks and precipices, and even in some cases old rabbit- 

 burrows ; when found in these, the warreners fix sticks at the 

 mouth of the hole, in such a manner as to prevent the escape 

 of the young birds, but wide enough apart to allow the old ones 

 to feed them. In the Eastern countries and the Holy Land 

 the Wild Pigeons almost invariably prefer such situations to 

 trees ; thus confirming the words of the prophet, who speaks 

 of the " Dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's 

 mouth " (Jer. xlviii. 28). 



It is remarkable that, although our common Wood-Pigeon 

 is supposed to be the 

 origin of all our common 

 House-Pigeons, every at- 

 tempt at taming the young 

 of these birds has failed. 

 Xo sooner are they re- 

 leased from confinement, 

 notwithstanding every at- 

 tention and care, than they 

 fly off at once to their 

 native woods and return 

 no more. But the In- 

 dians of Korth America 

 seem to have found out 

 some method of changing their nature, as a traveller found 



> 



The Stock-Dove. 



