WILD PIGEONS. 
89 
the letters being defaced by damp, the legs of the 
Pigeons were first bathed in vinegar, with a view to 
keep them cool, so that they might not settle to drink, 
or wash themselves on the way, which in that hot 
climate they were often doing. 
Of late years, the number of wild Pigeons in 
England, is, like the Swallows and Starlings, evi- 
dently diminishing, and it is rare to see a flock of 
any magnitude ; but formerly they were very abun- 
dant, as we may learn, not only from incidental 
remarks in ancient writers, but from allusions to the 
particular manner of catching them. Thus we find the 
prophet Isaiah speaking of them, “ flying as a cloud 
and constant allusions are made to their prodigious 
numbers. Indeed, had they not been far more 
numerous than they are at present, it would not 
have been worth while to have adopted the expensive 
mode of catching them, which we believe is at pre- 
sent entirely given up, though till within a few years 
it was practised near Cava, on the Gulf of Sorento, in 
Italy, where, upon the tops of some bushy hills, were 
erected small circular towers ; on each of these, 
towards the latter end of September, a man posted 
himself, and as soon as a flight of Pigeons passed on 
their way through the valley, he flung a flat stone 
over them, which, by its form or manner of throwing, 
made a sort of whistling noise, which frightened the 
birds, and hastened their flight towards a place of 
refuge. Another was thrown from each tower as 
they passed, until the affrighted flock was thus driven 
to the last turret in the valley, where a large net was 
spread in the hollows amongst the bushes, in which 
the birds were taken. Great art was requisite in 
