THE PARTRIDGE. 



87 



his vices. Perhaps our readers may think we have portrayed a 

 being so base, so Ioav, as seldom or never to be met with, except 

 among those mercenary scamps who shoot for the markets. But 

 rest assured, my gentle friends, that the picture is not overdrawn, 

 for there are dozens of just such fellows in every shooting commu- 

 nity; and perhaps we can even find some such among our own 

 sporting acquaintances, who hesitate at nothing to fill their bags, 

 in season or out of season, and, in reality, practise in secret the 

 open and avowed motto of the professed pot-hunter. We have 

 met with such characters, and doubt not but our sporting friends 

 have done the same, and perhaps been alike distressed and morti- 

 fied at their behavior in the field. When caught, however, with 

 such would-he sportsmen, we have but one course to pursue — re- 

 sign the field for the day, or take our dogs and quietly put ofi" in 

 another direction to pursue our sports solitary and alone. 



FURTHER HINT&. 



We shall now enter upon some particulars more familiar to the 

 practical sportsman, and in which he will take especial interest, 

 and no doubt feel competent to compare our observations with 

 the results of his own experience, and thus be able to judge of the 

 truth and importance of our information, not only to himself, but 



