232 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



As soon as caught, the heads were jerked off from the 

 tender bodies with the hand, and the dead birds tossed 

 into heaps. Others knocked the young fledgelings out of 

 the nests with long poles, their weak and untried wings 

 failing to carry them beyond the clutches of the assist- 

 ant, who, with hands reeking with blood and feathers, 

 tears the head off the living bird, and throws its quiver- 

 ing body upon the heap. Thousands of young birds lay 

 among the ferns and leaves, dead, having been knocked 

 out of the nests by the promiscuous tree- slashing, and 

 dying for want of nourishment and care, which the par- 

 ent birds, trapped off by the netter, could not give. The 

 squab-killers stated that 'about one-half of the young 

 birds in the nests they found dead,' owing to the latter 

 reason. Every available Indian, man, and boy in the 

 neighborhood was in the employ of buyers and specu- 

 lators killing squabs, for which they received a cent 

 apiece. 



' l The news of the formation of the nesting was not long 

 in reaching the various Indian settlements near Petos- 

 key, and the aboriginals came in tens and fifties, and in 

 hordes. Some were armed with guns, but the majority 

 were provided with powerful bows, and arrows with 

 round, flat heads two or three inches in diameter. With 

 these they shot under or into the nests, knocking out 

 the squabs to the ground, and raked the old birds which 

 loaded the branches. For miles, the roads leading to the 

 nesting were swarming with Indians, big and little, old 

 and young, squaws, pappooses, bucks, and young braves, 

 on ponies, in carts, and on foot. Each family brought 

 its kit of cooking-utensils, axes, a stock of provisions, 

 tubs, barrels, and firkins to pack the birds in, and came 

 intending to carry on the business until the nesting 

 broke up. In some sections, the woods were literally full 

 of them. With the aid of Sheriff Ingalls, who spoke 



