238 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



I did my best to avoid one. Hardly had I got 

 out of harm's way, when the pigeons passed over 

 me on their way back to the part where they had 

 left some of their number behind. Again two 

 shots rang out above me, and the pigeons rushed 

 over as before to the firs. What could be the 

 meaning of it, I wondered ? 



In less than five minutes back they were again : 

 this time a single shot was fired, followed up in 

 about ten minutes by another. As I had my field- 

 glass and they were low down, I could see all I 

 wanted whilst they passed and repassed overhead, 

 for the fog broke now and then, as the wind 

 moved it. 



Why the birds should have received that number 

 of shots, and still have returned for more, is out of 

 my reckoning. The next day was clear and bright, 

 but cold : where the pigeons had gone to then, I do 

 not know ; I did not see them, nor did I hear any 

 shooting. Birds are in one place one day, and gone 

 the next. As one pigeon-shooter told me, "If you 

 don't ketch 'em on the flop, you loses 'em ; most 

 special them 'ere furrin pigeons what cums and 

 goes." 



