of the performance--will be seen thus giving
the final _coup_ to the beautiful but unfortunate wanderers!

And still we have not explained what the boys are doing up yonder.
Well, we shall now announce their _metier_. Each has taken up with him
a number of little billets of wood, fashioned something like the letter
T, and about six inches in length. When this billet is flung into the
air, and twirls about in its descent, it exhibits some resemblance--
though not a very close one--to a flying pigeon-hawk. The resemblance,
however, is near enough to "do" the pigeons; for when they are within
about one hundred yards of the crows' nest, the boy launches his billet
into the air, and the birds, believing it to be a hawk, immediately dip
several yards in their flight--as they may be seen to do when a real
hawk makes his appearance. This descent usually brings them low enough
to pass between the trees; and of course the old women soon get their
teeth upon them.

The pigeon-catching is not free to every one who may take a "fancy" to
it. There are pigeon-catchers by trade; who, with their families,
follow it as a regular calling during the season, while it lasts; and
this, as already stated, is in the months of September and October. The
_Palombiere_, or pigeon-ridge, belongs to the communal authorities, who
let it out in sections to the people that follow the calling of
pigeon-netting; and these, in their turn, dispose of the produce of
their nets in the markets of Bagneres and other neighbouring towns.

Every one knows how excellent for the table is the flesh of this
beautiful bird: so much is it esteemed, that even at Bagneres, in the
season of their greatest plenty, a pair will fetch a market price of
from twelve to twenty sous.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

THE PYRENEES.

Speaking geologically, the Pyrenees extend along the whole north of
Spain, from the Mediterranean to the province of Galicia on the
Atlantic; and in this sense the chain may be regarded as between six and
seven hundred miles in length.

More properly, however, the term "Pyrenees" is limited to that portion
of the range which lies directly between France and Spain; in other
words, along the neck or isthmus of the Spanish peninsula. Thus
limited, the range is less than half the above length, or about three
hundred miles; while its average breadth is fifty.

Though less elevated than the Alps, the Pyrenees mountains are no
molehills. Their highest