218 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



shoot in America ran to the frolic; but on the whole 

 there was but little shooting. The birds were not worth 

 powder and shot, and could be killed so much more easily 

 and cheaply, especially those that roosted in the juniper 

 bushes, though, I should state, their roosts were not 

 confined exclusively to junipers. For other bushes are 

 frequently chosen, especially alders, which, for some 

 reason or other that I have not been able to discover, 

 invariably nourish greatly in the old beaver-meadows. 

 Here, besides those that are killed with poles, or netted, 

 others are suffocated with sulphur, or destroyed by equally 

 cowardly means ; in a word, formerly the people of the 

 districts where the pigeons appeared acted as if they held 

 a special commission to exterminate them in all haste. 

 During the killing, which always took place at night, the 

 birds behaved with remarkable stupidity. They never 

 attempted to escape to the tall trees, but as fast as they 

 were beaten down fluttered back to the bushes. 



The days after the slaughter the slayers would go 

 " pigeon-peddling," as the hawking of them about the 

 country to those who were too idle, or lived too far off, 

 to kill for themselves, was called. In the States all sorts 

 of itinerant trading is termed peddling, whether performed 

 on foot or with a waggon. One never hears of such a 

 thing as a hawker. The birds were sold cheaply enough ; 

 but I have never heard that their flesh was held in much 

 esteem. It is much like that of other pigeons ; that is, 

 of no particular flavour. The majority of those killed on 

 the bushes are young of the first brood, which the old 

 ones will not permit to roost on the breeding-trees. Most 

 of the old cocks, which also roost on the bushes, make 

 their escape when the attack begins. 



Now, according to my experience, the birds both 

 breed and feed in a more scattered manner than appears 

 to have been the case in former generations. They still 

 breed within certain areas ; but they, as far as I can 

 learn, never return to an old breeding-place at least 



