PIGEON SHOOTING 351 



THE WILD ROCK PIGEON 



This bird generally has to be shot from a boat, and usually 

 on a sea not as steady as it might be. The pigeons live in the 

 cliff caves, and disturbance causes them to dash out with a 

 speed and a twist that is highly productive of sport that is 

 not very fatal to the birds. 



It is clear that there are limits to the appreciation of 

 difficulty in shooting, otherwise these cave rock pigeons would 

 attract all those shooters who can never get pheasants high 

 enough or fast enough for them. But they do not. There is 

 certainly a chance of mingling the pleasures of sport with the 

 pains of sea-sickness, and so an excuse of a kind for leaving 

 the wild rock pigeon severely alone. 



THE WOOD PIGEON 



In summer these birds are widely distributed through 

 nearly every wood in the country, and the majority of the large 

 flocks we see in the winter come from abroad. Summer gives 

 shooting to anyone who has patience to wait for a very 

 occasional shot, but in winter great sport is to be had wherever 

 the big flocks are found. These flocks often number many 

 thousands of individuals, and do not visit the same spots every 

 year. The attraction is always food : acorns, clover-fields, and 

 turnip-fields are most attractive. If left alone, the pigeons 

 would soon clear a big field of every blade of clover or of every 

 turnip leaf. In ordinary weather they are very wild indeed, 

 and must be attracted to the hidden shooter with decoys of 

 kinds. But in hard frost, when there is some frost fog in the 

 air, through which the birds look as big as barndoor fowls with 

 their puffed-out feathers, they are almost careless of man or gun. 

 At least, they are so occasionally, and in such circumstances the 

 author has shot lots of them from the roadside hedge without 

 any concealment, but by merely walking along and shooting 

 those which rose nearest to the fence. Another way of shoot- 

 ing them is to wait for them to come in to roost. The latter 



