114 



NATURAL IIISTORV OF THIv FARM 



leagues distant from here on the brink of the river (the 

 Seneca) are eight or ten fine salt fountains in a small si)ace. 

 It is there that nets are spread for pigeons, and from seven to 

 eight hundred are often taken at a single stroke of the net. 

 Lake Tiohero (Ca>'uga), one of the two wliieh joins our can- 

 ton, is fully fourteen leagues long and one or two broad. It 

 abounds in swans and geese all winter, and in spring one sees 

 a continuous cloud of all sorts of game. The ri\cr which 

 rises in the lake soon di\ades into different channels enclosed 

 by prairies, with here and there fine attractive bays of con- 

 siderable extent, excellent places for hunting." (Jesuit 

 Relatiois for 1671-72). 



Of our fine native fowl, one, the 

 turkey, has been domesticated; one, 

 the wild pigeon has been wholly exter- 

 minated ; and most of the others have 

 been hunted almost to the point of 

 extinction. Game laws have served 

 in the ixist merely to prolong a lit- 

 tle their slaughter. If there be any 

 hope of preserving unto future gener- 

 ations the remnant of those game birds 

 that still survive, it would seem to lie 

 in the permanent rescr\'ations that are 

 being established north and south, 

 for their ]3rotcction. 



The wild pigeon was the first of our 

 fine game birds to disappear. Its 

 social habits were its undoing, when 

 once guns were brought to its pursuit. 

 It flew in great flocks which were 

 cons])icuous and noisy, and which the 

 hunter could follow by eye and ear, 

 ^""igton. ^^^ "^'^^ pa*«"8er ^^^^ ^^^^^^ (\o\\\\ with shot at cvcry 



