

THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



This is the first time the hunting season has been closed by proclama- 

 tion of the Governor. The provision under which this was issued is in 

 chapter 278, section 7 of the Session Laws of 1911 and is as follows: 



"Whenever, or wherever, during an open season for the hunting of 

 any kind of game in this State, it shall appear to the Governor upon the 

 showing of the State Forester that by reason of extreme drought the use 

 of firearms or fire by hunters is liable to cause forest fires, he may, by 

 proclamation, suspend the open season and make it a closed season for the 

 shooting of wild birds and animals of any kind for such time as he may 

 designate, and during the time so designated all provisions of law relating 

 to closed seasons for game shall be in force." 



NOTES ON BAND-TAILED PIGEONS. 



The following items concerning the abundance of trapping of band- 

 tailed pigeons were sent in by Mr. O. G. Dalaba, of Corvallis, Oregon: 



"I did quite a bit of trapping years ago in Wisconsin and later in 

 Oregon. The wild pigeon of the Pacific Coast is quite different from the 

 passenger pigeon of the East. They do not travel in large numbers as the 

 eastern birds in the Mississippi valley in the seventies. People now 

 would not believe it possible to see them in such large numbers. The band- 

 tailed pigeon has not as wild a nature as the eastern bird. I believe our 

 wild pigeon could become quite domesticated with a little care. 



"I used to catch them by the hundreds in the Coast hills in 1893, but 

 they were more plentiful in the Willamette valley or in King's valley at 

 the time. I caught or saved twenty-five dozen at one spring of the net at 

 Eddyville and then lost nearly half of them. We had so many that they 

 raised the net and hundreds got away. 



"I used to ship them to Portland and San Francisco via steamers from 

 Yaquina City. Have shipped as many as eighty dozen at a time, usually 

 losing from three to five dozen on a shipment to San Francisco, but to 

 Portland by express only a few. Birds are not nearly so abundant at the 

 present time, but are more plentiful than one not acquainted with their 

 habits would think. 



"The band-tailed pigeons do not nest in large numbers, usually only in 

 pairs in alder and fir trees along the river and over the water. The birds 

 migrate with the seasons, the same as the eastern birds; they make their 

 appearance here and on the Coast the last of April and first of May and 

 commence nesting, remaining until late in November. They feed on berries 

 of all kinds: salmon berries first and late in the fall on chittem and salal 

 berries and huckleberries. The pigeons are usually to be found in large 

 numbers in the fall around the salt marshes or tide lands and at mineral 

 springs in the Cascade mountains. ' ' 



Pagre thirteen 



