SHOOTING 97 



the day at length will come when the nerves are 

 sufficiently steady and the aim sufficiently good to 

 justify his being one of a shooting party under the 

 guidance of an older hand. 



Not until the autumn leaves have commenced to 

 fall, and briar and bramble have begun to look thin 

 in the coverts, can rabbit-shooting be prosecuted with 

 any advantage. The undergrowth is still too thick 

 for any game to move through it rapidly, and the 

 rabbits can only creep about, scarcely showing them- 

 selves, and affording but poor chances of a shot 

 across the rides. For as long as there is covert they 

 will stick to it, and until the underwood gets thinner, 

 they will double back and defy the most strenuous 

 efforts of beaters to get them out. 



Nevertheless, long before the big woods can be 

 beaten, rabbits will afford some amusement in the 

 hedgerows amongst old pastures, if worked with one 

 or two good spaniels and a gun on either side to 

 shoot those that can be forced to bolt. Again, when 

 the corn is ripe, and the reaping machine is at work, 

 going round and round the field, laying swathe after 

 swathe, and gradually reducing the area of standing 

 grain, the rabbits instead of bolting will work towards 

 the centre, availing themselves to the last of the little 

 shelter that remains, until the men, at the bidding of 



H 



