RING-DOVE HUNTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1938, Page 7

RING-DOVE HUNTING

SPORT IN THE PYRENEES. TRAPPING WITH NETS. Ring-dove hunting is one of the favourite sports of the Basques and the mountain dwellers of the Pyrenees. This peculiar kind of bird can only be hunted eight or ten days every year, but during those ten days business is practically at a standstill in the Basque country and all able-bodied men. women and children are out dove hunting. Whole villages are abandoned for the hunt, which always takes place between October 10 and 25. The ring-dove is a species of wood pigeon, but much more tasty to eat. and the hunting of them therefore proves a profitable business. Every October, never before the 10th and never later than the 25th, they migrate from northern Europe to Morocco. They fly in great flocks of two to three hundred at a time and always at high altitude. The mountains of the Pyrenees are therefore the only place where they can be caught. There are three ways of catching them. The real sportsmen wait for them at the top of the mountain passes. Early in the morning they can be seen sweeping up from the valley to cross the passes. They come over at high speed but within, gunshot, and the ambushed hunters pick them off.’ They fly so fast that one bird in ten shots is considered extremely good. Another mode of hunting them is that of the “Palombiere.” The palombiere (named after the Palombe, or ring-dove)»Js a camouflaged cabin built in the branches of the tallest oaks in the woods at the feet of the Pyrenees. In these woods the ring-dove usually comes to rest and feeds before crossing the mountain range. The hunters train pigeons to flutter from branch to branch when a flight of ring-doves is sighted. Seeing the pigeons, they think the wood is safe and swoop to the spot to settle. The hunters then shoot them from the cabin. The third way of hunting the ringdove is the most curious. Whole flights are caught in nets, but the catching is extremely difficult and needs the extraordinary patience and skill of the Basque peasant. Two or three hundred people are necessary for this hunt.

A great net is stretched between two big trees, preferably in a mountain pass or a gorge. The great thing is to persuade a flock to come flying into the net. To do this the hunters stretch out in a V shape, the net being at the base of the V. They sometimes stretch over several miles of country. The young men climb the trees and look out north for the flights. All wait in dead silence and well hidden. As soon as a flight enters the opening of the V the hunters at the end of the sides of the V start beating tin pans, and this goes on all down the converging lines, in order to direct the birds towards the base of the V and towards the net. About a hundred yards from the net one of the Basques holds a curiously shaped piece of wood. He waits till the birds are passing over him and with a sudden swing throws up this piece- of wood. It flies up, much like a boomerang, round and round, and gives a very good imitation of the flight of a hawk. Instinctively, the whole flock of doves shoots down to the ground, and if the thrower has well judged his distances, the' ringdoves fly straight into the net and fall to the ground, stunned, where they are promptly picked up.