Salt Lake Herald-Republican | 1895-03-17 | Page 14 | Pigeon Shooting a Disgrace

I PIGEOX SHOOTIXG A 4 DISGRAC The one act of my life which fills me with the most acute regret and remorse re-morse is that in earlyyears I gave a silver cigar case to be shot for at Hurlingham by the lords and commons com-mons My excuse if it can be called one is that I did not think I is the cause of much unconscious cruelty I is an act of which I am now poignantly ashamed When later on a wounded bird fluttered down to die beneath a cedar tree by which 1 was seated I 3 realized the lull horror of that disgusting dis-gusting sport and I never again entered en-tered the inclosure of the club Unhappily English example has since those days made such shooting popular and fashionable throughout Europe Not a word can be said in its favor or defense I is mean cowardly barbarous and contempti ble A blue rock is a clever and handsome hand-some creature I kept some once in a large enclosure to paint from and was struck as I watched them by their brightness vivacity and intelligent communication with each other the dancing and the posturing of the males in courtship are delightfully droll I have seen a male pigeon waltz round and round many times raising his crest and flapping his wings and advance to his lady love with mincing graces in a slow gavotte bowing low at intervals while she made believe not even to see him And these interesting inter-esting creatures are thrown pellmell into hampers and sacks with broken legs and wing feathers torn out and after long racking journeys half suffocated and tortured by thirst become be-come the targets for the crack shots of an aristocratic society Ouida in The Nineteenth Century