WOOD-PIGEONS AND WILD-FOWL 159 
cannot swallow, owing to the state of their throats. 
It does not seem unreasonable to suggest that the 
disease may originate from the pigeons’ feeding on 
acorns above which they may have roosted. In 
any case, the fact remains that the disease comes 
and goes with the time of year during which acorns 
may be found lying on the ground. Of one thing 
I am certain—that however badly pigeons may 
suffer from their diphtheria, it does not affect 
pheasants, which also feed on acorns. It is reason- 
able also to assume that human beings are not 
liable to be infected with it by ordinary means; 
for hundreds of men have examined a diseased 
pigeon’s mouth with their fingers, and have handled 
their handkerchief without harm directly afterwards. 
And hundreds of pigeons, their throats clogged with 
the cheesy-looking product of the disease, have 
been handled, cooked, and eaten. Yet there is no 
record of a case in which it has been suggested even 
that a human being has been infected by a diphtheritic 
pigeon. 
Shooting pigeons as they fly in to roost is fine 
sport—while it lasts. There is a brief period, just 
as the light of day yields to the dusk of night, when 
one may stand in an open spot and shoot at pigeons 
coming to a tree on which they have set their 
minds, and they will return to it again and again, 
faster than one can load. One of the best innings 
I ever had at roosting pigeons came about quite 
