“The breeding-places are selected with reference to abundance of food, and countless myriads resort to them.  At this period the note of the pigeon is coo coo coo, like that of the domestic species but much shorter.  They caress by billing, and during incubation the male supplies the female with food.  As the young grow, the tyrant of creation appears to disturb the peaceful scene, armed with axes to chop down the squab-laden trees, and the abomination of desolation and destruction produced far surpasses even that of the roosting places.”

Pokagon, an educated Indian writer, says:  “I saw one nesting-place in Wisconsin one hundred miles long and from three to ten miles wide.  Every tree, some of them quite low and scrubby, had from one to fifty nests on each.  Some of the nests overflow from the oaks to the hemlock and pine woods.  When the pigeon hunters attack the breeding-places they sometimes cut the timber from thousands of acres.  Millions are caught in nets with salt or grain for bait, and schooners, sometimes loaded down with the birds, are taken to New York where they are sold for a cent apiece.”

V

YOUNG HUNTERS

    American Head-hunters—­Deer—­A Resurrected
    Woodpecker—­Muskrats—­Foxes and Badgers—­A Pet
    Coon—­Bathing—­Squirrels—­Gophers—­A Burglarious Shrike.

In the older eastern States it used to be considered great sport for an army of boys to assemble to hunt birds, squirrels, and every other unclaimed, unprotected live thing of shootable size.  They divided into two squads, and, choosing leaders, scattered through the woods in different directions, and the party that killed the greatest number enjoyed a supper at the expense of the other.  The whole neighborhood seemed to enjoy the shameful sport especially the farmers afraid of their crops.  With a great air of importance, laws were enacted to govern the gory business.  For example, a gray squirrel must count four heads, a woodchuck six heads, common red squirrel two heads, black squirrel ten heads, a partridge five heads, the larger birds, such as whip-poor-wills and nighthawks two heads each, the wary crows three, and bob-whites three.  But all the blessed company of mere songbirds, warblers, robins, thrushes, orioles, with nuthatches, chickadees, blue jays, woodpeckers, etc., counted only one head each.  The heads of the birds were hastily wrung off and thrust into the game-bags to be counted, saving the bodies only of what were called game, the larger squirrels, bob-whites, partridges, etc.  The blood-stained bags of the best slayers were soon bulging full.  Then at a given hour all had to stop and repair to the town, empty their dripping sacks, count the heads, and go rejoicing to their dinner.  Although, like other wild boys, I was fond of shooting, I never had anything to do with these abominable head-hunts.  And now the farmers having learned that birds are their friends wholesale slaughter has been abolished.