

Sept. 7, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 



quest and the operator was convulsed, so that 
minutes; 
he did not get his breadth tor some 
but not a word was said as to whether the hotel 
accommodations were sumptuous, with baths 
and hot and cold water in every room, oF 
We were 
not, 
but the message was evidently given. 
told that the rush of travel to the metropolis 
of Temecula was so great that it might be hard 
work to secure a room, and later on asking the 
conductor which was the best hotel in the town, 
he promptly told us, and that it was the only 
Then Charlie, for a wonder, asked 
as to whether it was likely to be 
one as well. 
a question 
and if we could secure accommoda- 
said that undoubtedly 
crowded, 
tions, and the conductor 
we could secure accommodations if the house 
was not full. 
Owing to the rain and the soft track, the 
train was late and it was after seven. when we 
pulled into the dark little station and vainly 
looked around for some one to transfer our 
trunk to the hotel which we were told was 
right across the bridge, but all was as silent 
grave. Visitors evidently were mot ¢x- 
The trunk not and the 
short, so it was not much trouble to 
as the 
pected. was heavy 
distance 
carry it over, and we found two very com{ort- 
able rooms at our disposal, but baths were lack- 
ing. The town about a dozen 
buildings and the 
rooms, so that I understood why our Riverside 
with 
consisted oi 
hotel of about as many 
friend smiled when he ordered a room 
bath. 
We had sent for the liveryman and also made 
inquiries for the the unpro- 
name to the letter 
He had gone home and gone 
with 
had 
gentleman 
nounceable whom we 
of introduction. 
to bed, but the 
liking, and seeming, after all, to know al] about 
liveryman proving to our 
the country and the pigeon shooting, we con- 
cluded we did not care to do the social act and 
present letter of introduction. We asked 
questions and found that some one had been 
out shooting only a few days before and prob- 
ably had returned home that day. 
This was our druggist friend who had given 
The 
our 
us the original pointers on where to go. 
indications seemed favorable while the birds 
were reported not as abundant as they had 
been, yet probably there were plenty of them 
still in the mountains, so we made arrangements 
for an early start and to come back to the hotel 
the following night unless we concluded to take 
more than one day for the shooting; in that 
event, the chances were we could get accom- 
modations at a little ranch up in the moun- 
tains. 
It was chilly, and a fire in the dingy little 
office and lobby combined of the Hotel Teme- 
We had a few 
games of seven-up and the landlady and her 
The landlady 
cula was necessary for comfort. 
daughters came in and talked. 
wanted to know if we had ever shot pigeons 
and then told of the large that ap- 
peared some times and that it was no uncom- 
numbers 
mon thing to bring in a grain sack full. 
“How are they to eat?” asked Charlie. 
“All right,’ she_ replied, “if know 
They eat acorns almost entirely 
you how 
to cook them. 
here now, and it makes the flesh bitter, so they 
should be drawn soon after shooting, and then 
I parboil them awhile or let them lie in soda 
water over night.” 
I tasted them later on and distinguished no 
bitter taste, and as they were hotel cooked, I 
had no idea that the particulars for extracting 
is 
A MOUNTED PAND-TAII.ED 
This is a near view of the left-hand bird 
the bitterness were as carefully carried out as 
the landlady directed. They. tasted to me very 
much like our tame pigeons and not as good as 
the old-fashioned passenger p.geon after being 
well fattened on beechnuts, or the squabs after 
they had lived on wheat stubble. 
We early 
ducted a conversation for awhile through the 
Plenty of 
retired to our rooms and con- 
board partition that separated us. 
coverings were necessary on the bed. I had 
my window raised and the shade up, and in 
the middle of the night Charlie called to me 
that it was raining hard, yet my room was 
flooded with the brightest moonlight. 
We were up bright and early the morning of 
Tuesday, March 26, 1907, and went out to take 
a view of the town. No one was stirring and 
the whitest of white frost was everywhere. “A 
little stream wound through the town and from 
its surface clouds of steaming fog were rising. 
Two kelldivers were busy with breakfast and 
seemed very tame. A little further 
stream, a flock of coots were swimming in and 
down 
out among the rushes, and overhead we heard 
the whistle of a pair of mallards. Truly the 

PIGEON. 
In our cover picture, 
valley of Temecula was beautiful that morning 
On one side, the snow-covered San Jacinto 
Morrtains gleamed in the sunlight and to the 
no:th and east old San Jacinto peak loomed 
away, that in the far 
San Bernardino Mountains were to 
the 
than at 
vp miles and beyond 
distance the 
be seen. I never saw snow further dewn 
the motntain side this time. To the 
west another range bordered the valley nearer by 
and unpretentious. These were zhe Santa Rosa, 
and it was in their seams and zullies we were 
to do our shooting. 
Breakfast was announced, and it proved not a 
sumptuous meal, but answered the purpose. 
We started out to get the liveryman and go. 
rushing in Temecula; they 
himself 
not 
The proprietor 
Business was 
slept late. had con- 
cluded to drive us, and we had a very comiort 
able two-seated rig, with canopy top and a 
good pair of horses. It was nearly 8 o'clock 
before we got away, and the liveryman’s son 
went along because there was plenty of room 
and because it would be a nice day and further 
because we were all glad to have him. I never 
have seen a brighter boy, nor one mo-.e im 

