21 MAY 1954, Page 16

A Homing Pigeon Walking up through the wood the other

day I discovered the corpse of a pigeon. The feathers of the bird were strewn about and it was hard to tell whether it had been shot or pounced upon by a fox or a cat, although the former seemed more likely. I needed only a glance to tell that it was not a wood- pigeon and, sure enough, there was the ring. It was a bird from a loft where racing pigeons were kept. The ring was taken down to the cottage with the intention of finding out more about it, but I wondered what sort of a man would shoot a homing pigeon. It is not at all difficult to tell a homing bird from a woodpigeon in flight, quite apart from the build of the birds. On the ground a