SWANTON] INDIAN'S OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 331 



caught partridges and other small birds and animals in snares and 

 traps (Swanton, 1922, p. 384). Squirrels were hunted very largely 

 by small boys armed with blowguns and bows and arrows. 



I was told by the Creeks that wild turkeys were usually found in 

 a grove of trees; after a few had been killed they would fly to 

 another grove, and it was the native custom to follow them from 

 grove to grove. Speck says that Yuchi hunters 



are unusually proficient in calling wild turkeys by several means. One instru- 

 ment made for this purpose is the hollow secondary wing bone of the turkey, 

 about five inches in length. The hunter draws in his breath through this tube, 

 making a noise which can best be described as a combination of smacking, squeak- 

 ing and sucking. By skillfully operating the calls the birds are lured within 

 range. Sometimes the palm of the hand is employed in making the noise. 

 Another device is to grate a piece of stone on the top of a nail driven fast 

 into a piece of wood. The rasping sound produced in this way will answer 

 quite effectively as a turkey call if manipulated with skill. (Speck, 1909, 

 pp. 22-23.) 



The Florida Seminole also used turkey calls (MacCauley, 1887, 

 p. 512). 



Lawson witnessed the procedure followed in hunting passenger- 

 pigeons, at a point not far from the boundary between the two Caro- 

 Jinas and near Catawba River : 



We went to shoot pigeons which were so numerous in these parts that you 

 might see many millions in a flock; they sometimes split off the limbs of stout 

 oaks and other trees upon which they roost at nights, and making the ground 

 as white as a sheet with their dung.^* You may find several Indian towns of 

 not above seventeen houses, that have more than one hundred gallons of 

 pigeon's oil or fat; they using it with pulse or bread as we do butter. The 

 Indians take a light and go among them in the night and bring away some 

 thousands, killing them with long poles, as they roost in the trees. At this 

 time of the year, the flocks as they pass by, in great measure, obstruct the 

 light of the day. (Lawson, 1860, p. 79.) 



The Alabama of later times had a trap made out of small split 

 sticks, which they used in catching small birds. Apparently it was 

 very much like our "figure four trap," and was probably borrowed 

 from the whites, as they believe to have been the case. 



Adair (1775, p. 30) informs us that eagle feathers were so highly 

 valued among the Chickasaw and Creeks that "the whole town will 

 contribute, to the value of 200 deer-skins, for killing a large eagle; 

 and the man also gets an honorable title for the exploit," but how 

 this hunt was pursued is not stated. 



Le Moyne tells us that alligators were hunted in the following 

 manner by the Timucua : 



They put up, near a river, a little hut full of cracks and holes, and in this 

 they station a watchman, so that they can see the crocodiles (or alligators) 



^" Through some confusion either in Lawson's notes or in setting the type for this par- 

 ticular edition, the phrase "and making the ground as white as a sheet with their dung" is 

 displaced and put at the end of the next sentence. I have restored it to its proper position. 



