FIGEOiaS. 

 PIGEON CATCHING IN THE PYEENEES. 



Once, while tlie late Angus B. Eeach was traveUing in the 

 south of France, he had an opportunity of witnessing, if not 

 the actual performance of pigeon-catching by the profekional 

 catchers, a clear insight into the wfiy in which the business 

 was managed. He thus describes it : — 



" Stretching manfuUy uphill, by a path like the bed of a 

 muddy torrent, I was rewarded by a watery bUnk of sunshine. 

 Then the wind began to blow, and vast rolling masses of mist 

 to move before it. At length, however, I reached the Palombiere, 

 situated upon the ridge of the hUl, which cost a good hour and 

 a half's climb. Here grow a long row of fine old trees, and on 

 the northern side rise two or three very high, mast-like poles 

 of liberty, notched so as to allow a boy, as supple, and as sure- 

 footed as a monkey, to climb to the top, and ensconce himself 

 in a sort of cage, like the ' crow's nest ' which whalers carry at 

 their mast heads for the look-out. 



" I found the fowlers gathered in a hovel at the foot of a tree ; 

 they said the wind was too high for the pigeons to be abroad; 

 but for a couple of francs they offered to make believe that a 

 flock was coming, and show me the process of catching. The 

 bargain made, away went one of the urchins up the bending 

 pole into the crow's nest, a feat which I have a great notion 

 the smartest topman in all her Majesty's navy would have 

 shirked, considering that there were neither foot-ropes nor man- 

 ropes to hold on by. Then, on certain cords being pulled, a 

 whole screen of net rose from tree to tree, ^o that all passage 

 through the row was blocked. 



" ' Now,' said the chief pigeon catcher, ' the bii'ds at this 

 season come flying from the north to go to Spain, and they 

 keep near the tops of the hiUs. "Well, suppose a flock coming 

 now ; they see the trees, and will fly over them — if it wasn't 

 for the pigeoneer' (pigeonierj . 



" ' The pigeoneer ! what is that ? ' 



" ' "We're going to show you,' and he shouted to the boy in 

 the crow's nest, ' Now, Jacques ! ' 



" Up immediately sprang the urchin, shouting like a pos- 

 sessed person, waving his arms, and at length laimohing into 

 the air a missile which made an odd series of eccejitric flights, 

 like a bird in a fit. 



" ' That is the pigeoneer,' said the fowler ; ' it breaks the 



flight of the birds, and they sweep down and dash between the 

 :98 



