THE WILD PIGEON. 229 



them, and weights dragged them slowly to the ground; 

 their legs restrained and their wings free, naturally they 

 used their wings constantly; this sight, to the birds com- 

 ing in, had the appearance of birds fast alighting to feed. 

 The flocks, after making two or three wide circles, would 

 settle on the poles, and then the hunter quickly fired at 

 them; experience had demonstrated that it would not do 

 to wait too long before firing, but 1 the shots must be 

 made just after the first birds had settled on the poles, and 

 while their companions were hovering over them. At 

 times, they lit on one another in such dense quantities 

 that the poles were broken. In the Eastern States, the 

 birds were fond of alighting in the salt licks or beds, and all 

 along their line of flight these stands were built, remain- 

 ing year after year; no one thought of molesting them, 

 and a hunter always held sacred the stand of another, 

 and would never use one without the consent of the 

 owner. Many of these stands were of local reputation, and 

 had descended from sire to son, grandchildren and great- 

 grandchildren. It is a grand sight to see a flock of sev- 

 eral thousand swoop down, decoyed into the fowler's 

 stand. They will come along, sweeping and trailing over 

 the hills and down the valleys, or in straight and steady 

 flight high in air. Flyers will be thrown up, hoverers 

 flutter to the ground, when suddenly the leaders of the 

 flock espy the invitation to the feast, and with bowed 

 and set wings begin their descent, cutting the keen air 

 with vibratory wings; they can not and do not attempt 

 to come down perpendicularly, but each bird tries to 

 follow the path of its predecessor, and the long trail of 

 purple, blue, and white descends like an avalanche, in 

 appearance a huge inverted cone or spiral stream of life. 

 As they wind around in a circle before alighting, and then 

 cover the ground in a fluttering mass, they hover and flit 

 over the earth, covering it at times to the depth of sev- 



