G4 WING-SHOOTING. 



On moonlight nights cocks visit meadows, corn-fields 

 and hill-sides in search of food, returning by daylight to 

 the coverts, where they rest the fore-part of the day, and 

 then are difficult to find ; that is, they lie very close, fre- 

 quently allowing both shooter and dog to pass within a 

 few feet without being flushed ; and now it is just here 

 where a painstaking sportsman, with a careful dog, will 

 often make a good bag. 



On dark nights they remain in the coverts, but, I believe, 

 do not feed ; on the following mornings they begin to 

 move early and to feed, leaving out a scent by which they 

 are readily found. 



What is most desired in a pointer or setter, for this 

 kind of shooting, are caution, steadiness, and close quar- 

 tering ; but, to rank as a first-rate cock-dog, he must hunt 

 for the foot-scent : and the chief qualifications in the 

 shooter are endurance and perseverance, combined with a 

 knowledge of their haunts and habits. When flushed, 

 the birds usually fly to comparatively open places on the 

 edges of thickets. When hunting in cornfields, on being 

 flushed, they go straight away and alight within one hun- 

 dred yards, or when flushed near the edge of the patch, 

 go to the outside, and turn to the right or left, and drop 

 near the edge, or in grass, or weeds a short distance from 

 the corn. 



