PIGEON SHOOTING. 145 



crack hand at this household species of gunnery 

 may be the worst of general sportsmen ; though it 

 must be admitted he will be a good marksman. 

 The first fashionable place of resort for pigeon- 

 matches was the Old Hats; a public-house on the 

 Uxbridge road, that took its name from the shoot- 

 ing carried on in the grounds attached to it, where 

 the pigeon was placed in a hole covered with an old 

 hat, which constituted the original, or primitive, trap. 

 Of late years, the Red House, at Battersea, has su- 

 perseded the Old Hats, and is now the great metro- 

 politan mart for wager- shooting at pigeons. 



The ordinary distance at which the shooter stands 

 from the trap, is one-and- twenty yards ; the bounds 

 within which the pigeon must fall, to score, vary from 

 a circumference of sixty to one hundred yards from 

 the trap, as a centre. This trap is a shallow box, 

 twelve inches long, and eight or ten wide ; sunk into 

 the ground, so as to be level with it. To this is 

 affixed a sliding lid, with a string to it, held by a 

 person standing near to the shooter. From him he 

 takes his directions to draw back the lid when his 

 aim is taken ; and at the moment that he is shooting, 

 another bird is placed in the trap by the purveyor 

 of pigeons. Thus the match goes on with astonish- 

 ing rapidity birds and guns being furnished even 

 with more expedition than they can be used. As a 

 rule, the pigeon-match shooter should use more 

 powder and less shot than in ordinary sporting. 

 The larger the gun and the charge, the wider the 



