PIGEON SHOOTING. 147 



generally come under the denomination of a help-all or make-feast, 

 at the instigation of those industTious, liberal landlords who adver- 

 tise three pieces of plate to be given to tlu-ee best shots ! but at the 

 moment of entering the list, it becomes a collateral part of the 

 contract, that each adventurer is to contribute his proportion 

 towards the gifts of the plate, to pay for his pigeons, and to dine at 

 the ordinary. These matters properly adjusted, the shooting is 

 carried on in precisely the same manner as before described, with 

 this exception only, that every individual shoots_ for himself alone, 

 without any connection with party. The candidate killing_ most 

 pigeons at the least number of lots, becomes entitled to the piece of 

 plate highest in value, and _ so in proportion; but in so great _ a 

 number of candidates there is frequently an equality of success ;_ in 

 such cases they are called ties, and are shot off at the remaining 

 pigeons till the superiority is ascertained and the victor proclaimed. 

 Tliis done, the day concludes mth the same degree of festivity and 

 superabundance as before described, but in a style of inferiority, 

 necessarily regulated by the pecuniary resources of the parties con- 

 cerned. Looking, however, to its attraction as a matter of sport, 

 little or nothing can be said in its favour when put in competition 

 with the more noble and manly enjoyment of the sports of the 

 field. The liberal mind feels a temporary repugnance at the idea 

 of first confining, and then Kberating from that confineraent, hun- 

 dreds of domestic animals doomed to instant death, with a very 

 slender probability in tlieir favoar, when .a moderate shot Avill bring 

 down fourteen or fifteen, and some nineteen out of twenty. This 

 picture affords but an indifferent idea of the sportsman's humanity 

 who indulges largely in this species of gratification; and further, 

 we presume to observe, for the information of the inexperienced, 

 that it is the most infatuating and expensive amusement the juve- 

 , nile sportsman can possibl)^ engage m ; for one day very seldom 

 I terminates without the appointment of a second ; one extravagance 

 I as constantly engenders another, to the utter exclusion of economy, 

 I w-hich is upon all similar occasions generally laughed out of coun- 

 ' tenance. Experience has also comanced us, that eight, nine, and 

 ': ten pounds for pigeons, in addition to the bill_ of fashionable exor- 

 ' bitances for the day, amounting to the inconsiderable reckoning of 

 two or three guineas each, has sent many a pigeon-shooter to his 

 bed, and awakened him to the pillow of reflection." 



That these statements may not appear altogether one-sided, 

 we shall give a quotation of a somewhat modifying character 

 as to the uses and nature of this practice of pigeon-match 

 shooting. We agree with Mr. Daniel, that " shooting of 

 pigeons and of game is so widely different, that a person m^ay 

 almost always strike his bird from the box, that scarcely ever 

 makes shift to hit it when rising from the bush, imless a pointer 

 ascertains to an inch from what spot he may expect the bird to 

 spring. No method is so advantageous in learniu.^ to shoot well 

 as acquiring it by practising it at game; the pigeon from the 



