42 
RURAL HOURS. 
can a dozen either ; we must expect cool weather yet. These 
little birds are in favor in the New York markets, after they have 
fattened themselves upon the whortleberries in the autumn ; for 
unhke their kindred tribes of the swallow and martin race, who 
live wholly, it is believed, on insects, these are berry-eaters also. 
They are said to be peculiar to this continent. 
Tuesday, I8tk. — The fishing-lights enliven the lake now, of an 
evening, and they are often seen well into the night. They are 
spearing pickerel, a good fish, though inferior to some others in 
our lake. Formerly, there were no pickerel here, but some years 
since they were introduced from a smaller sheet of water, ten or 
twelve miles to the westward, and now they have become so abun- 
dant that they are the most common fish we have — taken at all 
seasons and in various ways. They are caught in summer, by 
"trolling," a long line being thrown out and drawn in from the 
stern by the fisherman, who stands, while an oarsman rows the 
boat quietly along ; during the warm weather, one may see at 
almost any hour of the morning or afternoon, some fishing skiff" 
passing slowly to and fro in this way, one man at the oars, one at 
the line, trolling for pickerel. In the evening, they carry on the 
sport with lights in the bows of the boats, to attract the fish ; 
they are often speared in this way, and we have heard of their 
being shot with a pistol, which seems what a sailor might call a 
" lubberly" way of attacking fish — certainly, honest Jack would not 
have approved of this unfishermanlike proceeding. In the winter, 
the pickerel are also caught through holes cut here and there in 
the ice — lines with baited hooks being secured to the ice and left 
there — the fisherman returning from time to time to see what suc- 
cess his snares have had. The boys call these contrivances " tip- 
