Country Life
By IAN NIALL
IF anything ever happens to the woodpigeon there will be rejoicing among farmers and dis- may among the makers of shotguns and shot- gun cartridges, for the pigeon has lately been elevated to the position of Public Enemy No. I and the main target of the shooting world. The provision of cheap cartridges to help things along might lead one to imagine that the days of the pigeon are numbered, but the pigeon has always faced a lot of fire. It is wary, keen-sighted. A flock of them can do as much harm as any colony of rabbits. They are harder to kill because they have the ability to select their own ground and fly at a height that defies shot. They are not easily destroyed in large numbers except when coming in to roost, and even then they may escape if every possible roosting place in the locality has not been manned. One wonders about the balance of pigeon population. They have fallen in their thousands for many years, but do they ever get any less numerous? It seems to me that they hold their own extraordinarily well.
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