DOMESTIC PIGEONS 95 



and offer a target to any one who wished to take 

 a pot-shot. 



A number of years ago the author attended a 

 pigeon shoot in New Jersey. A large part of the 

 local population, especially boys, had gathered at 

 a safe distance to view the spectacle. The coun- 

 try was rugged in character, and each inequality 

 hid a youth, as did each tree-trunk and every 

 large boulder or post-and-rail fence. The sports- 

 men in the center were ringed by a half-mile circle 

 of ancient army muskets of Civil War vintage, 

 Flobert rifles, and shot-guns of all types and de- 

 scriptions, either single- or double-barreled, muz- 

 zle- or breech-loading. If a pigeon escaped from 

 the men at the traps, and many did escape, the 

 weapons of the callow multitude went into action. 

 The air was continually alive with flying pellets 

 of lead, and the neighborhood was treated to a 

 noisy imitation of the Battle of San Juan Hill. 

 Birds which happened to succumb to the fusillade 

 later found a way into pigeon-pies; other more 

 fortunate individuals returned to their natal roosts 

 to be sold again for the morrow 's sport. Such 

 was at least one pigeon shoot in America. 



But live pigeon-shooting is now a dead sport 

 in the United States, as it is in most European 

 countries. In Monaco alone does it still retain 

 high favor, and there it is undertaken more as- 

 a betting medium than anything else- Clay 

 "birds" have elsewhere taken its place, and now 



