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Summary of the History of the
Crossbow
and keepers, as a means of obtaining game-birds, pigeons, hares and
rabbits.1 Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, bolt-shooting
crossbows had, however, chiefly become articles of amusement and were much
used at the target, though they were employed for killing small animals
till about 1720.
About 1760 the stonebow, which had always been more or less in favour,
was improved in strength and accuracy, and between 1810 and 1820 it was
brought to great perfection, and has since been known as the bullet crossbow.
Chapter XXXVII.
Competitions at the target with a small bolt-shooting crossbow, have
for several centuries been a common recreation in parts of the Continent,
especially in North Germany and Belgium. The crossbow now used at the target
in Belgium, an excellent weapon of its kind, is described in Chapter XLII.
It is a curious fact that the figure of a bird made of wood, and called
the ' Popinjay,' is still set up as a mark for the modern crossbow shooters
of the Continent, the name Popinjay being applied to the same form of target
so long ago as the early years of the fourteenth century, fig. 161, p.
225.
1 Shakespeare alludes to the stonebow. In Twelfth
Night, or What you Will, act ii. scene 5, Shakespeare makes Sir Toby exclaim
' O ' for a stonebow ! to hit him in the eye.'
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