442 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS 



LETTEE XXVIII 



WOODPIGEON SHOOTING (PAET II) 



SHOOTING WOODPIGEONS AS THEY FLY IN TO ROOST 



THIS is usually a matter of about an hour's sport, 

 and though short, it is a merry time while it lasts, if 

 plenty of birds roost in the wood you are standing 

 in. In this case you will have to fix your decoy in 

 the thickest and warmest part of the covert, for it is 

 there the birds will select their sleeping quarters. 

 Place a decoy (one is sufficient for flight shooting) 

 properly head to wind, so as to show just clear of the 

 tip of some dark fir (fig. 93, next page) under or near 

 which you notice plenty of fresh droppings and small 

 feathers. Your tree should be the tallest of the clump 

 it is among, though it does not follow it be a lofty one, 

 for pigeons will roost in quite low trees if these are of 

 thick foliage, and well sheltered. If the presence of 

 droppings and feathers prove the birds have roosted 

 all over a wood, it is not necessarily a sign they 

 have been present .in numbers, as the droppings of a 

 few that have changed their quarters from night to 



