File:The hunter and the trapper in North America; or, Romantic adventures in field and forest. From the French of Bénédict Révoil (1875) (14749980695).jpg

Identifier: huntertrapperinn75rv (find matches)
Title: The hunter and the trapper in North America ; or, Romantic adventures in field and forest. From the French of Bénédict Révoil
Year: 1875 (1870s)
Authors: Révoil, Bénédict Henry, 1816-1882 Adams, W. H. Davenport (William Henry Davenport), 1828-1891
Subjects: Hunting Game and game-birds
Publisher: London, New York : T. Nelson and Sons
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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cluded a clause in their agreements providing that theyshould not have pigeons for dinner oftener than twicea week,—^just as in Scotland the servants in the greathouses made it an express condition that they should notbe compelled to eat salmon above three times. One morning, in this same month of October 1848, onthe heights of the village of Hastings, which stretchesalong the Hudson River, I fired some thirty times intoa swarm of pigeons, securing a booty of one hundred andthirty-nine birds. This number included about eightyenormous birds, fat and plump as young chickens. I wasobliged to hail a negro, who passed by the place where I PIGEONS AT HOME. 135 was seated with my feathered spoil; and I gave him halfa dollar to carry it to the steam-boat bound for NewYork. American pigeons are found everywhere in the terri-tory of the Union; but, in general, these birds select thesecluded and unfrequented woods on the borders of thecivilized districts, and the vast deserts which abut on the
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THE MALE MOUNTS GUARD, AND PROTECTS HIS COMPANION. prairies. The season of incubation offers a striking con-trast to the chaotic and confused scenes which I havebeen describing. If my readers accompanied me into theleafy depths of the forests of the Ohio and the Missis-sippi, they would hear nothing but incessant cooings;would be witnesses only of proofs of tender affection andmarks of tenderness on the part of the male pigeon to-wards his mate. Above their heads, in the tree-tops, the)would perceive a host of close-packed nests, constructed of 136 PIGEON-MASSACRE. interlaced and interwoven twigs, so as to form a slightconcavity, in which two or three eggs are deposited.Upon these the male and female sit alternately. Themale alone mounts guard, and protects his companion.It is he who goes forth in quest of provisions, and whoreturns in due time to place himself on the nest andshelter its treasures with his wings. Very frequently the incubation succeeds, and crownsthe tender efforts of

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