CHASING AND RACING 277 



so placed that they have every opportunity of proving 

 their quality as " shots. " Admittedly the beat is 

 generally so contrived that the birds may get well on 

 the wing and in the full impetus of flight before they 

 fly the gauntlet of shot that awaits them. 



Otherwise, where is the difference between a 

 pigeon released from a trap, or a pheasant driven out 

 of cover at a given point ? In both cases the birds are 

 the target for a stationary marksman, and in neither has 

 the shooter the sporting pleasure of finding them, or of 

 employing a dog, except as a means of retrieving the 

 casualties. 



As for the charge of cruelty and barbarity which 

 has been levelled against pigeon shooting, it is a cry 

 of canting hypocrisy when raised by other votaries of 

 the gun, who delight in a holocaust of pheasant 

 feathers. Believe me, there is far more torture inflicted 

 on the long-tails than on the gentle " doves." I have 

 shot, in my time, thousands of pheasants and thousands 

 of pigeons, and if asked where the greater cruelty 

 occurs, I should say, without hesitation, in the shooting, 

 at battues, of the former. If a pigeon falls within the 

 boundary of the ground, it is quickly retrieved by the 

 dog, and if alive, is skilfully put out of its misery. If it 

 goes away wounded, it seldom passes the " scouts 

 outside," but if it does so, it returns to its loft, is 

 examined by the pigeon purveyor, and if found to be 

 at all seriously wounded is forthwith destroyed. 



But what of the pheasant, the victim of an inferior 



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