COVERT-SHOOTING 267 



as any one, and make no demur about 

 eating a good lunch when it is there, still 

 rightly look on these things as luxuries, and 

 not as among the necessities of existence. 

 In short, any right-thinking lover of 

 shooting, blest with good health and not 

 over-burdened with years, should be able 

 to enjoy starting out in the morning with 

 his gun, his lunch in his pocket, and a fair 

 chance of filling the keeper's game-bag in 

 the day. And the wide departure in 

 practice from this sound enough theory 

 must be set down in no small degree to 

 over-indulgence in the easy ways of covert- 

 shooting. To spend weeks on end shoot- 

 ing masses of high pheasants seems, at 

 least to the writer, like treating your 

 stomach to an exclusive diet of pate-de- 

 foie gras ; both are excellent things — in 

 moderation. With a touch of Balaam's 

 feelings after dispensing unpalatable truths, 

 the writer gladly leaves any further 

 thought about the ethics of covert-shoot- 

 ing, to pass on to matters more practical 

 and less controvertible. 



