FROM 
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For Forest and Stream. 
SHOOTING WILD PIGEONS. 
A LTHOUTH I have been reading your paper for nearly 
one year I have seen little in its columns concerning 
the wild pigeon, its habits and the country which it selects 
for its habitation during the winter months, and its nesting 
places in summer. 
Although not strictly a game bird, I esteem it one of the 
most interesting birds in this country as regards its habits, 
with some few of which I am acquainted, and being very 
desirous of becoming more familiar with it, I know of no 
better place to seek for information than in the columns of 
your valuaole paper; I would, therefore, ask any of your 
correspondents, to whose eye this may come, to add by a 
future letter to my information. 
At this season of the year the Alleghany Mountains are 
literally alive with them, and from morn to eve nothing in 
the best localities can be heard but the sharp crack of rifles 
and the heavier sound of shot guns. Everyone seems to 
be impressed with the idea that he must make the finest 
bag of the season, and consequently every one that can pro- 
cure a gun, no matter of what kind, sallies forth to wage 
an indiscriminate war upon the poor pigeons that have 
visited our hills and valleys to feed upon the acorns and 
wild cherries which are found in the greatest profusion on 
the top of the Alleglianies in a strip of country called the 
Glades. These Glades are open spaces devoid of trees in 
the midst of unbroken forests covered by tall grass and 
alder bushes; they extend for perhaps fifty miles on top of 
the mountains, and are from fifteen to twenty miles in 
breadth. This section of the country seems to be the 
favorite ground for pigeons in the fall of the year, when 
they are making their way from the northern frosts to find 
a more congenial clime in the Southern States. 
Hearing of the immense quantities of pigeons in this 
section of our State, my friend J. and myself determined 
to take a little trip to see if we could not kill a few of the 
countless multitudes that were swarming in the mountains. 
We took the afternoon express on the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad from Cumberland, and after a two hours ride ar- 
rived at Deer Park, a summer resort, on the line of the 
BaUimore and Ohio, and no sooner had we stepped upon 
the platform and cast our eyes about us, than we saw large 
flocks flying in every direction. We left the station and 
walked about one hundred and fifty yards in the woods, 
when 1 succeeded in bringing down the first pigeon; that 
shot seemed to open the ball, and we never ceased to load 
and fire until darkness closed the day. Although late in 
the evening when we commenced shooting, and the dead 
birds being difficult to find, on account of the thick jack 
oaks, our bag contained fifty pigeons. 
W e stayed all night with an old gentleman named Friend, 
and the next morning, just as daylight began to wake a 
sleeping world, we hurriedly dressed, and for fifteen or 
twenty minutes had delightful sport; as the pigeons left 
the roost for their feeding grounds we stood in an open 
field, and as flock after flock passed over each one con- 
tributed to our bag. In half an hour not one pigeon could 
be seen, and although we hunted diligently all day, some 
thirty pigeons rewarded us, until four in the evening, when 
the gorged birds began to seek their roosting place of the 
previous night. We selected one of the glades, of which I 
have before spoken, where the grass had been mowed, and 
the pigeons sweeping over its surface gave us splendid 
sport, as the most we shot could now be found, But all 
things must have an end, and so had our hunt here; but on 
counting our pigeons for the afternoon, found we had 
bagged ninety-four. 
We determined that wearied nature needed repose, and 
