100 SPORT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



eyes were attracted b}' an inscription painted in 

 black letters upon a piece of sail-cloth, " Wild 

 Pigeons for Sale." I went on board the little 

 coaster which had this feathered cargo on board, 

 and there the captain showed me baskets of the 

 wild pigeons which he was selling at three lialf- 

 pence each. 



A Tennessee planter told me that in one day he 

 captured four hundred dozen of pigeons b}^ the net, 

 a mode much employed in the country. His ne- 

 groes, to the number of twenty, were fatigued with 

 knocking down the pigeons as they crossed his plan- 

 tation. 



In the month of October, 1848, the passage of 

 these birds was so considerable in the State of New 

 York, that they were sold at a penny each on the 

 quays and in the principal markets. Masters fed 

 their servants upon them, and they, if only they 

 could have anticipated what was going to hajjpen, 

 would have had a clause inserted in their agree- 

 ments of service that they were not to have pigeons 

 for dinner more than twice a week. 



One morning, in the same month of October, 

 1848, along the heights of the village of Hastings, 

 on the banks of the Hudson, I had a chance of 

 firing thirty shots at flocks of pigeons, and bagged a 

 hundred and thirty-nine birds. Among these there 

 were about eighty immense birds, as fat and plump 

 as little fowls, and I was obliged to hail a negro 



