INDIAN BLUE ROCE-PIGEON 141 



potted by wily trans-frontier tribesmen, on the look out for bigger 

 Pigeons than Blue Rocks. 



My own shooting has, however, been restricted to the vicinity 

 of civilization, where the birds were frequenting deserted factories 

 or the hke, or else to the shooting of birds wending their way to and 

 from the towns they frequent. Even under such circumstances, though 

 the surroundings were unromantic, the sport was excellent, and on 

 more than one occasion in a couple of hours, during the mornings and 

 evenings, I have got thirty or forty couple to my own gun, and have 

 finished with the comforting feeling that the toll taken of the flock 

 left it apparently undiminished in numbers. 



One of our favourite places for these shoots was an old deserted 

 indigo factory in the district of Nadia : the house and factory still 

 stood upright, though ruinous, and aU around were the remains of 

 viUage-houses, fragmentary, yet each still affording shelter for a few 

 pairs of Pigeons, the great bulk of which, many hundreds in number, 

 dwelt in the bigger buildings. About a quarter of a mile from these 

 buildings, or perhaps rather less, we used to stand with our guns, and 

 shoot the Pigeons as they left in the early morning to feed, or returned 

 in the evening to roost. Generally the birds came flying rather low, 

 only some six to twelve feet from the groimd, so that they were well 

 screened from our view by the mongo topes, bushes, plantain trees, and 

 clumps of bamboos which grow in luxuriance aU round. Dodging in 

 and out between these trees the birds would come swooping down upon 

 us either singly or in twos or threes, affording only the quickest of shots 

 in front of us, or rather easier shots as they rose in the air to avoid us 

 and hurried away in the opposite direction. Now and then, of course, 

 a bird would come sailing home well over the trees and give a simple 

 chance, and, stiU less often, a flock of a dozen or so would come scurrying 

 along so closely packed that a bad shot might miss the bird aimed at 

 yet get another one, or, with luck, kiU the bird aimed at and one or 

 even two others as well. 



Taking one with another, however, we always considered one 

 bird to every two cartridges quite fair shooting, whilst two birds to 

 three was above the average. 



Shooting the birds as they fed aU round about in the fields after 

 the rice was cut, was much simpler, and a good shot should 



