While many of the crossbows in the gallery have very simple forms with a straight course for the quarrel to follow, others have the most extraordinary "gooseneck" between the latch and the bow, for example:

http://www.myArmoury.com/albums/photo/2464.html

Can anybody explain how this works :wtf: ? Where does the quarrel rest? What path does it follow when released? I have no idea how this bow would function :blush: , but there seem to be many examples in the gallery.

That would be a stone-throwing crossbow.

Pellet crossbows wouldn't have been useful in a military context, or we would see more & earlier examples of them, I'd imagine. As far as I know, they were used primarly against those things you suggested -- birds and small game. They were desirable for the fact they wouldn't damage the animal's pelt the way having a bolt sticking through it would.