TRAP-SHOOTING. 289 



and competitors, to take the palm and carry off the 

 prize is no mean glory. The birds probably suffer as 

 little, cut down with the whistling charge of fine shot 

 while on the wing, and with a chance for life, as 

 though their necks were remorselessly wrung by the 

 poulterer ; and in either case they find their way to 

 market and furnish food for the people. 



The most serious objection to this sport is, that the 

 wild pigeons have to be taken from their nests in 

 the spring, and thus, either prevented laying their 

 eggs, or hatching their broods. As the preservation 

 and increase of all species of wild birds, animals, and 

 fishes, and the prevention of their destruction at 

 unseasonable times, are the first duties of a sports- 

 man, the killing of pigeons ere they have raised their 

 broods is on a par with shooting ducks and snipe in 

 spring, and is excusable only because the feeling of 

 the people does not require the enactment of tho- 

 roughly appropriate laws ; and while it prevents the 

 protection of the latter, makes the preservation of 

 the former which is a comparatively valueless 

 bird scarcely worth the trouble. 



Under these circumstances, and in order to fill up 

 a season of the year when there is no other legitimate 

 spoiling excitement, trap-shooting has grown in 

 public estimation, and being adopted by a large class 

 of sportsmen, has led to the employment of a nume- 

 rous body of followers, skilled in the secrets of trap- 

 ping and preparing birds so that they may be pre- 

 sented to the shooter in the best possible condition. 



This class of underlings, who attend to the many 

 13 



