The Country Genilcviaii s Magasiue 



229 



^h^ Naturalist. 



GROUSE SHOOTING AND PIGEON SHOOTING. 



WE quote the following from the Pall 

 Mall Gazette on the above subject as 

 being neither maudlin nor morbid, senti- 

 mental nor savage, but as taking a very 

 sensible view of the v/hole matter : — 



Without going into the question as to 

 whether or not it is gross and wanton cruelty 

 to shoot pigeons from a trap, on the approach 

 of the twelfth, it may not be uninteresting to 

 regard the sports of Hurlingham and Shep- 

 herd's Bush from another point of view. 

 The advocates of pigeon shooting ha\e 

 upheld their pastime upon many grounds, 

 but upon none more strenuously than that 

 it was an admirable preparation for those 

 performances on the heather with guns with 

 which no one apparently finds fault or objec- 

 tion. It is said by the advocates of bird 

 handicaps that a " difficult" pigeon is as hard 

 to bring down as anything in the shape of 

 game. The number of the traps impart the 

 requisite uncertainty to the feat. The various 

 ways in which the dove tries to escape his 

 fate is another element contributing to ren- 

 der the business like real game shooting. 

 But there are some hard facts to be brought 

 against these representations ; and one of the 

 most important is, that while a good game 

 shot — a good general shot at grouse or what- 

 ever gets up — may be able to hold his own 

 at Hurlingham, it is seldom, indeed, that a 

 confirmed artist and practitioner at the trap 

 distinguishes himself on the moors or at the 

 coverts. 



The flight of a pigeon from a trap assuredly 

 in no manner whatever resembles the start of 

 grouse from the heather. In grouse shooting 

 there is always a large measure of ground, 

 indeed, from any part of which the birds may 

 spring. The dogs never absolutely let you 



know the exact spot within a few yards from 

 which the pack or the single bird may fly. It 

 is possible that when you have dispersed 

 broods, and they have dropped in different 

 places, by close marking you can ascertain 

 pretty nearly where they are ; but they may 

 run, and when your eye is fixed on a par- 

 ticular bunch of cover or by the side of a 

 white stone, when from the attitude and con- 

 duct of your four-footed assistants you are 

 almost convinced the birds miist be just be- 

 fore you — whirr — they are off entirely to the 

 left, or perhaps have gone round you alto- 

 gether. Nothmg whatever analogous to this 

 occurs opposite the pigeon traps. To be 

 sure, the pigeon may be loosed from one 

 trap or another, but you know perfectly well , 

 that he must hop or dart from enclosures 

 only altogether extending across so short a 

 space that it can be steadily swept backwards 

 atid forwards by the shooter. The very 

 pigeon-attitude of ready shews at once how 

 erroneous it is to compare shooting in the 

 field or on the moors with shooting at bagged 

 birds in a paddock. A gentleman who on 

 the twelfth attempted to march through the 

 heather with his gun constantly on the pre- 

 sent vrould be a just object of ridicule to the 

 humblest gillie retainer of the gamekeeper. 



Again, there is nothing in game shooting 

 that better serves a sportsman than cool- 

 ness or nerve. Now, although it has never 

 yet been known or recorded that a pack of 

 grouse have turned on a fowler and at- 

 tacked him, it is extraordinary what excite- 

 ment attends the approach to them when 

 that approach is intensely and emphatically 

 indicated by the dogs. If they were so 

 many tigers in the jungle, they could not 

 cause greater heart-beating than they do to 



