PIGEONS. 193 



feet by fifteen feet, is levelled and smoothed so as to look 

 something like a concrete tennis court. Near it are fixed 

 some tree tops, about twelve feet to fifteen feet high, form- 

 ing a sort of fence around, and affording a place for the 

 birds to perch on. A bough house or cachet is built at one 

 end of the bed, in which the catcher could sit hidden from 

 the doves. Indian corn is put on the earthen floor, as it is 

 called, every day, until the birds come to find it out and 

 come to feed there regularly. The American pigeons turn 

 up in flocks about four p.m., and in the morning. When it 

 is known, by watching from a distance, that they feed, the 

 fowler goes down about a couple of hours before and sets his 

 nets, and sits in the bough-house until they are together, and 

 catches the lob by pulling the net at a judicious moment. 

 Very likely this plan, with a little modification, might be 

 A-ery successful amongst the faggot stacks and clearings of our 

 beech and oak woods. 



To the poisoning of birds or animals of any sort there is 

 always the greatest objection. Not only must all such 

 methods seem criminal and cowardly, but they are often 

 absolutely dangerous to man and beast. Only a short time 

 ago the papers told us how a farm bailiff in East Kent had, 

 together with his wife and family, had a narrow escape from 

 death by arsenic. The man was walking through a wood 

 with his master, when he picked up a wood pigeon, appa- 

 rently freshly shot. He took it home and had it cooked. A 

 few hours after they had partaken of the meal he and his 

 family were seized with illness ; and the man himself showed 

 such serious symptoms that a doctor was summoned. The 

 usual remedies in cases of poisoning were administered, and 

 the man recovered. Another device, perhaps one degree 

 better than actual poisoning, is to place a sheaf or two of 

 oats or wheat in the field, and allow the birds to freely feed 

 from it for a day or so. Meanwhile some grain must be well 

 soaked in gin or brandy, the commoner and more fiery the 

 better. This should be spread thickly round the sheaf or 



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