156 SHOOTING IN CHINA 



obstruct the view of the shooter. These 

 oak groves are also the resting places of the 

 deer, and at the foot of the hills wherever 

 the ground is moist the dog will occasionally 

 put up a woodcock or snipe. The ex- 

 perienced shooter well knows that the 

 pheasant changes his feeding ground quite 

 often. The places that knew him in 

 abundance one season will not know him 

 the next. 



The sport I am now writing about is far 

 more healthy and exciting than that of 

 shooting driven birds. The system of 

 agriculture in England renders almost 

 necessary the latter as the only way of 

 shooting pheasants, and those are not bad 

 marksmen who can bring down a high 

 flying pheasant whether driven or other- 

 wise, but the endurance and skill of the 

 shooter are better tested when, with gun 

 and dog, he finds this game bird on his 

 native hills and plains. Here there is full 

 liberty for each. No taming process has 

 dulled the vitality of the pheasant, and when 

 he rises his flight is masterful and strong:. 

 There is no sympathy that the bird was 

 raised near a barn-door and is driven over 

 the guns while the shooters sit at ease on 



