TRAP-SHOOTING. 289 
and competitors, to take the palm and carry off the 
prize is no mean glory. The birds probably suffer as 
little, cut down with the whistling charge of fine shot 
while on the wing, and with a chance for life, as 
though their necks were remorselessly wrung by the 
poulterer ; and in either case they find their way to 
market and furnish food for the people. 
The most serious objection to this sport is, that the 
wild pigeons have to be taken from their nests in 
the spring, and thus, either prevented laying their 
eggs, or hatching their broods. As the preservation 
and increase of all species of wild birds, animals, and 
fishes, and the prevention of their destruction at 
unseasonable times, are the first duties of a sports- 
man, the killing of pigeons ere they have raised their 
broods is on a par with shooting ducks and snipe in 
spring, and is excusable only because the feeling of 
the people does not require the enactment of tho- 
roughly appropriate laws ; and while it prevents the 
protection of the latter, makes the preservation of 
the former—which is a comparatively valueless 
bird—scarcely worth the trouble. 
Under these circumstances, and in order to fill up 
a season of the year when there is no other legitimate 
sporting excitement, trap-shooting has grown in 
public estimation, and being adopted by a large class 
of sportsmen, has led to the employment of a nume- 
rous body of followers, skilled in the secrets of trap- 
ping and preparing birds so that they may be pre- 
sented to the shooter in the best possible condition. 
This class of underlings, who attend to the many 
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