PIGEON -STEALERS. 



115 



Determined to put a final stop to the plunder, I 

 pulled it down, and have erected another in a 

 safer place ; which I have made so high, that no 

 ladder can be found of sufficient length to reach 

 the roof. 



Our pigeon-cots are now much diminished in 

 numbers. Those which formerly stood in the 

 paddocks, have either been pulled down, or left to 

 remain, without any hopes on the part of the 

 owners, that they will ever again become productive ; 

 whilst those in the villages, exhibit an appearance 

 of manifest neglect on the part of the farmers. 



In fact, the modern amusement of pigeon- 

 shooting, entails poverty on the pigeon- cot. The 

 village of Walton bears ample testimony to this. 



If the act of parliament, which they say, has 

 never been repealed, were now put in force to save 

 our few remaining dove-cots from dilapidation, the 

 nocturnal pigeon-plunderers would soon cease to 

 exercise their wicked calling. Anybody, on ob- 

 serving a willow- cage filled with common pigeons, 

 and ready for the railway-train, would have a 

 pretty certain clue to go by ; as he might be quite 

 sure, that all those birds have been recently stolen. 

 Such a willow cage, has lately been left, full of 

 old pigeons, at the Eoystone-station, Yorkshire. 



In addition to pigeon-stealers during the night, 



m 2 



