PIGEON SHOOTING. 147 



themselves more to the hollies, and such trees as are 

 mantled with the creeping ivy (for the timid ring- 

 dove ever courts concealment), and where it is next 

 to impossible to spy it out. As it is then certain to 

 fly out the wrong side, if left to itself, the best way is, 

 having first stationed yourself at a favourable point, 

 to whistle to your attendant, who must then face you, 

 and throw a clod, or stick, into the tree. 



Autumn is certainly the season, in a gastrono- 

 mical point of view, for circumventing the wood- 

 pigeon ; for then, from the nature of its food, its 

 flavour is far more delicious than at any other time. 

 This is a migratory bird, and far less plentiful than 

 it \vas, like all of its tribe. It, however, leaves us in 

 the winter, and returns, to breed and rear its young, 

 in the spring. Mr. Blaine speaks favourably, as, 

 indeed, do all having experience of it, of the excellent 

 eating it is, except when it feeds on turnips, and be- 

 comes somewhat rancid of taste. By filling its inside 

 with bread, he says, much of this disagreeable flavour 

 is got rid of. Moreover, he enumerates among the 

 many virtues of the cushat, the property it has of 

 assisting the gamekeeper in his duty. Where they 

 exist in any quantity, he states, that the cabal they 

 make at night when unwelcome visitors intrude into 

 their woody haunts, prevents poachers from using 

 their air-guns, the instruments they usually employ 

 for the destruction of pheasants, on windy nights, 

 when there is strong moonlight. Need we here 

 make intercession for the turtle-dove ? No sports- 



