372 BIKDS OF NORFOLK. 



fatigue, yet the necessity for being always on the alert, 

 always ready for a chance shot in the "thick" or the 

 " open" during many consecutive hours, to say nothing 

 of incessant firmg from the shoulder for a like period, is 

 somewhat trying to the head and nerves ; and if any 

 one is inclined to despise the amusement on the ground 

 that pheasants are so easy to kill, let him try his hand, 

 late in the season, at a few old cocks, flushed some two 

 hundred yards from the post of the shooter, so that 

 the bird is in full flight when he passes over : the 

 pace is then tremendous ! In short, the truth is 

 that the "battue" affords every opportunity for the 

 display of good as well as bad shooting, and he is 

 no ordinary shot who can account satisfactorily in 

 '^feathers" and *^felt" for one in every three of his 

 empty cartridges, provided always he shoots fair and 

 does not pick his shots. Again, if "battue" pheasant 

 shooting is only the "wholesale slaughter of tame 

 pheasants, driven up by the beaters like barn-door 

 fowls," how comes it that, on many of the more highly 

 preserved manors, the best shots only are invited ? Is it 

 no honour to be named for the ^^ outer ring" at 

 Holkham, to stop those ^'rocketers" which only crack 

 shots can hit? and even the "bouquet" at a ^^hot 

 corner" requires, for a successful personal result, a 

 certain amount of cool self-possession which might 

 prove invaluable under more trying circumstances. 

 Thus much, then, in defence of a system, to my mind 

 objectionable only when carried to excess ; but that it 

 is so, both in this and other counties, is evident enough 

 from the records of game killed to a limited number of 

 guns. 



Without attempting here to discuss this vexed 

 question as affecting the interests of landlord and 

 tenant, it would seem as though, of late years, 

 the enjoyment of sport had become subsidiary, on 



