XLVIII 



WILD PIGEONS AND DOVES 



SOME years ago in a magazine article I referred to 

 the fact that Forester had excluded all pigeons and 

 doves from his list of game, and remarked that on this 

 point we did not agree. Applying the criterion of a 

 game bird, that he be everywhere shot by sportsmen, 

 and good to eat when shot — the pigeons and doves all 

 appear to be game birds. "Swallows," I observed, 

 ** are excellent marks, for example, but are not used 

 as food, but the wild pigeon and wild dove are highly 

 prized by epicures, and command good prices in the 

 markets. They are, too, swift flyers, and are often 

 taken in a most sportsman-like manner in the stubble 

 and corn, and from blinds. The shooting of the doves 

 in the hemp-fields of Kentucky is a recognized form of 

 sport, and I have heard sportsmen say they prefer doves 

 to partridges. Audubon says their flesh is remark- 

 ably fine, tender, and juicy, especially when the birds 

 are fat, and by some is regarded as superior to that of 

 either the snipe or the woodcock. That talented 

 writer, the late Fred Mather, once took issue with 

 me in Sports Afield, insisting that Forester was right 

 and that the dove certainly was not a game bird. 

 He went so far as to express surprise that I shot swal- 

 lows, and made a sentimental defence of the dove. 



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