can a dozen either; we must expect cool weather yet. These little birds are in favor in the New York markets, after they have fattened themselves upon the whortleberries in the autumn; for unlike their kindred tribes of the swallow and martin race, who live wholly, it is believed, on insects, these are berry-eaters also. They are said to be peculiar to this continent.
Tuesday, 18th.—The fishing-lights enliven the lake now, of an evening, and they are often seen well into the night. They are spearing pickerel, a good fish, though inferior to some others in our lake. Formerly, there were no pickerel here, but some years since they were introduced from a smaller sheet of water, ten or twelve miles to the westward, and now they have become so abundant that they are the most common fish we have—taken at all seasons and in various ways. They are caught in summer, by “ trolling,” a long line being thrown out and drawn in from the stern by the fisherman, who stands, while an oarsman rows the boat quietly along; during the warm weather, one may see at almost any hour of the morning or afternoon, some fishing skiff passing slowly to and fro in this way, one man at the oars, one at the line, trolling for pickerel. In the evening, they carry on the sport with lights in the bows of the boats, to attract the fish; they are often speared in this way, and we have heard of their being shot with a pistol, which seems what a sailor might call a “ lubberly ” way of attacking fish—certainly, honest Jack would not have approved of this unfishermanlike proceeding. In the winter, the pickerel are also caught through holes cut here and there in the ice—lines with baited hooks being secured to the ice and left there—the fisherman returning from time to time to see what success his snares have had. The boys call these contrivances “tip-
