PIGEONS. 221 



birds of this description are often sprung from the pea 

 fields. 



For shooting woodpigeons there are various con- 

 trivances, which, like those for all other wild birds, 

 consist chiefly in waiting 1 for them, as this always 

 answers so much better than attempting to follow them. 

 Some hide themselves among the trees, where they come 

 to roost about sunset : others take them at perch, after 

 the fall of the leaf, by moonlight* (the way poachers 

 shoot pheasants); and many are killed by boys in the 

 summer, who conceal themselves, in a harbour, near the 

 ponds where these birds and the doves go to drink. 

 But, after all, the most effectual way is to shoot them 

 when they come to the turnips in snowy weather. If 

 the frost is so hard that you cannot approach them, 

 under cover of a fence, without making a noise on the 

 white ice, you must, after moving them, wait, to lee- 

 ward, for their return. If you can make a place in a 

 hedge, it is preferable to the common plan of putting 

 up hurdles covered with straw, as the woodpigeons are 

 apt to notice, and feed out of reach of them. These 

 birds are fond of frequenting beech trees, and feeding 

 on the nuts that fall from them. 



To get shots at woodpigeons round a fir clump, or 

 plantation, send your man on the opposite side to drive 

 them out before you ; or they will, ten to one, go off 

 under cover of the tree from which they fly. By wait- 

 ing concealed in the covert, you may often stand in one 



* This the woodpigeons will not allow you to do, unless the trees 

 are clear of underwood; as the least rustling of bushes would put 

 them to flight. For this reason (as Mr. Daniel very justly remarks) 

 they are an excellent night signal, to keepers, when poachers have 

 availed themselves of boisterous weather to attack a preserved covert. 



