148 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



how or where the birds fall. There is nothing like 

 wood-pigeon shooting for teaching a man how to 

 take birds coming to him, and the habit of aiming 

 well forward, which is the keynote of good work. 



There is no prospect of wood-pigeon shooting 

 becoming a fashionable sport, if only because of its 

 uncertainty. Yet uncertainty in any sport is half 

 its attraction. You may go out to shoot pigeons on 

 a dozen days ; on many of them you may not get 

 a shot, and you will be lucky to make one double- 

 figure bag. Yet you never know when you are 

 going to be let in for a real good innings, so it is 

 a golden rule always to take plenty of cartridges. 

 I have lost several chances to do great things 

 through shortage of cartridges. The best of pigeon- 

 shooting is that it lasts almost the year round, and 

 that without bringing about even a desirable 

 decrease in the numbers of the birds. Naturally 

 one shrinks from killing wood-pigeons during the 

 height of their breeding-time, which is from the 

 middle of May till the middle of July. By the 

 latter date many young birds will have joined the 

 crowds of pigeons that invade fields of ripening 

 corn. Rye, winter oats, and winter barley are the 

 first grains to ripen ; but so soon as the ears of 

 wheat begin to assume a bronze shade, though still far 

 from ripe, pigeons will come to wheat in preference 

 to all else. They might prefer ripe peas and 

 vetches, but these are not available till much later 



