RABBITS, PARTRIDGES, PIGEONS 159 



eat more than we ordinarily do to-day. You will 

 note that in Walton's *^ Compleat Angler " there is 

 a good deal about how to cook and serve up the 

 fishes as well as about how to catch them. 



At any rate you may quite safely begin by shoot- 

 ing wood-pigeons not flying, just as you will begin 

 by shooting rabbits not running, though you must 

 not pot pheasants or partridges. I have more 

 than once, when I have wanted a pigeon, and have 

 not seen how to get him in any other way, tried a 

 pot shot. And, take my word for it, you will not 

 get every pigeon you shoot at in a tree with thick 

 branches, if he is forty or more yards off. 



Besides the ring-dove or wood-pigeon, there is 

 the stock-dove, which I have heard described by 

 some country folk as the ^' blue rock " : he now and 

 then joins the pigeon parties in hard weather. 

 This is a considerably smaller bird than the ring- 

 dove, and has not the beautiful white feathers on 

 the side of the neck, but metallic green ones 

 instead. Both birds are richly clad with iridescent 

 feathers. Even in winter, when the ring-dove is not 

 at its brightest, it is a beautiful bird, gleaming and 

 shimmering in colour. When the winter passes, 

 and the ring-doves break up their flocks and 

 parties and pair off, you must desist from the gun 

 so far as they are concerned. They lose then 

 their winter wildness, and are therefore no longer 

 creatures keenly to be stalked by the sportsman. 

 Stay your hand when the ring-dove pairs, and wait 

 till the coming of the autumn. 



