CHAP, v.] MATCHES IN FRANCE. 171 



won, killing 12 out of 20, Mr. Green only scoring 7 out 

 of 17. Mr. James Fox, corn-factor, and a gentleman 

 from Barnsley, shot for 2 at 5 birds each, 21 yards 

 rise, l|oz. of shot, the usual boundary ; they tied, kill- 

 ing 2 each." If this were the rule, the Pigeons would 

 certainly prefer falling into the hands of the gunner 

 rather than of the poulterer ; but we read further on 

 that a sweepstakes was also shot for by seven gentle- 

 man, at 3 birds each, distance according to calibre ; 

 Messrs. Porter and Willcox killed all their birds, and 

 divided. It must also be confessed that the birds which 

 escape, on returning to their homes, may perhaps be 

 again re-caught and sold, to be shot at just once more. 

 It would be no more than fair if every owner of a Dove- 

 cote were to give every 'scaped Pigeon a twelvemonth's 

 grace afterwards at least. 



The sport is also disapproved of by the high authority 

 of "Nimrod Abroad;" but he does not make out his 

 case against it so well as some of the friends of hu- 

 manity might wish. " Pigeon-shooting," he says, " is 

 carried on upon a large scale in the Tivoli Gardens, in 

 Paris. It is one of those modern innovations on legiti- 

 mate sporting which I could never bring myself to ap- 

 prove of; and were I to require an argument against 

 it, on the score of wanton cruelty, I should find it in the 

 fact of the almost incredible number of a hundred and 

 ninety thousand Pigeons having been let out from the 

 traps in these gardens alone, since the year 1831." 



But Mr. Apperley's book was published in 1842, or 

 11 years afterwards. The division of 190,000 by 11 

 gives 17,272 per annum, not 1500 per month, nor 

 400 per week ; i. e. not a hundred a day to supply a lux- 

 urious metropolis, especially fond of pates, entrees, and 



