PIGEONS. 281 



valley, and made fast to trees. Three tall spars, nearly fifty 

 feet in height, are reared in a triangular form, meeting in a 

 point at the summit, where a sort of nest of bushes is made, 

 in which a person conceals himself, ascending the high poles 

 hy small pegs, which, as they shake under his weight, are as 

 slender as possible, consistently with strength, appears to 

 lookers-on to he a service of no small risk. Two men are 

 also concealed in hushes near the nets, which, by means of 

 lines, they are enabled to throw over the Pigeons as they 

 advance ; while others, assembled on the heights immediately 

 above, frighten the birds and force them to fly downwards as 

 they pass through the channel of the valley. When all have 

 taken their positions, they wait patiently and silently the 

 arrival of a flock of Pigeons. Their approach is announced 

 by a rushing sound, on hearing which the people on the 

 heights pour upon them a volley of short sticks, which com- 

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

 they attempt to rise, the man in the nest immediately begins 

 shaking 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 (Columba cenas and palumba), 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 holes mouth. (Jeremiah 

 xlviii. 28.) 



