PIGEON SHOOTING 353 



shoots the better, because there are always more birds coming, 

 and if you wait they may get near enough to hear the shot, or 

 even to see the smoke, after either of which those particular 

 birds are lost for the day. The best position for a hide is in the 

 fence of a covert, near to not very tall trees on which dummies 

 can be placed, and where the adjoining field affords food for 

 choice, a turnip or a clover field. 



The shooting at settling pigeons as they steady themselves 

 is child's play, but the ambitious gunner need not wait for this, 

 and will have plenty of opportunities of being dissatisfied with 

 his own skill. If there should be big hawks about, as described 

 by Lord Walsingham of one of his famous shoots, the gunner 

 is likely to realise that even wood pigeons can emulate the 

 twisting of the snipe and the speed of a down-wind grouse, and 

 do it all at one time. 



It may be asked whether wooden dummies are likely to 

 take in the live birds. There is no doubt about that, if they 

 are set head to wind, as the real thing always sets himself. 

 Moreover, it has occurred that a peregrine has so much mistaken 

 the nature of these imitations as on one occasion to dash at 

 one of them, hurl it yards away, and suffer himself to become 

 a gunner's substitute for the tardy quarry, and so to gaze out 

 of a glass case ever after as a warning to rash and greedy 

 humanity. 



The author believes that Mr. Mason of Eynsham Hall, who 

 now has Drumour in Perthshire, holds the record for a day's 

 wood pigeon shooting. He is not very certain of the score, 

 but believes it was 253 birds, if memory is reliable. 



With all the records of trap shooting before him, the author 

 cannot make up his mind to occupy space with them ; for, as 

 already said, they are not comparable amongst themselves. 



