OR DAYS the gamekeeper on a distant beat had implored us to come and shoot some of the swarms of woodpigeons that showed up so clearly against the dark green of the spruce and larch trees, of which those particular coverts were composed. But knowing of old the innate cunning of these birds, we refrained from any invasion of their haunts until a cold equinoctial gale came blowing up from the westward, and all the countryside became bleak and drear from the
