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 
