SOME MEMORIES 321 



the guns are standing, each pheasant is 

 a tolerably high bird when he is still on 

 his feet, and none of the usual devices 

 of net or flag are necessary to make him 

 fly well. 



Some twenty minutes of right good 

 fun — not so many pheasants as make 

 the shooting distasteful, enough to give 

 every one a fair chance of pretty shooting 

 and to ensure that no one grows cold 

 through enforced idleness ; some fifty 

 come crashing down through the spruce 

 branches behind the line of guns, as 

 many find their homes in safety, or with 

 the shot in the wrong place sail down 

 with wings set on a long slant, to be 

 marked down and safely gathered by the 

 keepers far behind. 



A goodly sprinkling of woodcocks 

 come forward, some a reasonable mark 

 flying high and standing out black against 

 the sky ; others well - nigh impossible, 

 dusky shadows threading a mazy path 

 through the close-growing trunks. Once 

 a stray cock grouse — one of that privi- 



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