Stool Pigeon

The hunters were quite inventive in their efforts to net large numbers of Passenger Pigeons. Some used a live decoy bird. They would sew its eyes shut, attach it to a circular stool at the end of a stick, raise it up in the air, and then drop it down. The "stool pigeon" would flutter its wings in an attempt to land. Gregarious by nature, the birds flying by try to land by the bird in distress only to get tangled in the hunter's nets. Rather than shoot the netted birds, the hunters would crush their head between their thumb and forefinger.