Ohio, and those about lake Michigan, which abound in wild oats;
though I have never killed any that had that grain in their craws.
In one of them, last year, I found some undigested rice. Now the
nearest rice fields from where I live must be at least 560 miles;
and either their digestion must be suspended while they are flying,
or else they must fly with the celerity of the wind. We catch them
with a net extended on the ground, to which they are allured by what
we call TAME WILD PIGEONS, made blind, and fastened to a long
string; his short flights, and his repeated calls, never fail to
bring them down. The greatest number I ever catched was fourteen
dozen, though much larger quantities have often been trapped. I have
frequently seen them at the market so cheap, that for a penny you
might have as many as you could carry away; and yet from the extreme
cheapness you must not conclude, that they are but an ordinary food;
on the contrary, I think they are excellent. Every farmer has a tame
wild pigeon in a cage at his door all the year round, in order to be
ready whenever the season comes for catching them.

The pleasure I receive from the warblings of the birds in the
spring, is superior to my poor description, as the continual
succession of their tuneful notes is for ever new to me. I generally
rise from bed about that indistinct interval, which, properly
speaking, is neither night or day; for this is the moment of the
most universal vocal choir. Who can listen unmoved to the sweet love
tales of our robins, told from tree to tree? or to the shrill cat
birds? The sublime accents of the thrush from on high always retard
my steps that I may listen to the delicious music. The variegated
appearances of the dew drops, as they hang to the different objects,
must present even to a clownish imagination, the most voluptuous
ideas. The astonishing art which all birds display in the