152 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



flying wide, will make a final tack, to bring them 

 swooping diagonally over your head, their purple 

 breasts and white-barred wings vivid in the glow of 

 the evening sun. 



A field with woods all round is not so good, 

 although more pigeons may come, because they 

 come from all directions. Owing to the difficulty of 

 keeping out of sight and seeing the birds in time, 

 one does not get such satisfactory shooting as when 

 one can watch the birds converging from a favourite 

 direction, and can enjoy at least the chance to drop 

 nine out of ten on corn-free ground. If there be no 

 fence on that side of the feeding-field nearest the 

 wood from which the pigeons come, you must erect 

 a circular screen of hurdles or netting, well draped 

 with local herbage and boughs not withered, but 

 fresh ; but often there will be a convenient hedge, 

 in the middle of which, if low enough, you can get, 

 or behind it, erecting a screen at your back. Should 

 the hedge be so high as to prevent your seeing 

 approaching birds, fix up a screen on the front side. 

 The great thing is, while giving yourself every 

 chance to see the pigeons in time to take them in 

 front, not to allow them before or after being shot 

 at to see more than is necessary of you. Pigeons 

 are scared far more by the sight of a man than by 

 the sound of a dozen shots. Generally, and par- 

 ticularly when they are flying against a breeze, they 

 have a favourite line by which they enter a field. 



