CHAPTER X[I. 



PIGEON SHOOTING. 



This volume professes to treat of the various descrip- 

 tions of shooting, which offer themselves to the notice, 

 and for the adoption, of the young amateur of the 

 trigger. For this reason, although we hold the prac- 

 tice of trap-shooting at the dove tribe as far from a 

 sporting exploit, it must be allowed a place in the 

 present chapter. We have in no part of this work 

 entered upon the question of the comparative cruelty 

 of rural sports, because the theory of the lawfulness 

 of man's treatment of the lower animals would be 

 involved in it ; a subject too subtle for philosophy, 

 and far too grave for flippant casuistiy. 



Tame pigeon shooting is, in point of fact, but one 

 of the many forms of gambling ; it is never, pro- 

 bably, attempted, except to decide a wager, or to 

 bring off a sweepstakes. Colonel Hawker says of 

 the practice, "It is simply this — if you miss, you 

 are disgraced ; and if you kill, you get no credit."" A 



