78 WING-SHOOTING. 



or two, 4:hen five or six, and at last the remainder. Here 

 a breech-loader shows off its advantages, as a number of 

 shots may be had, provided the sportsman handles his 

 gun rapidly, and works without speaking, as they often 

 lie within a few feet of the gun even after it has been 

 fired, when they rise at the sound of the voice. When 

 they rise in this irregular way, they go in different direc- 

 tions, and by marking the different lines of flight you 

 may have an idea of their localities, which will be within 

 two hundred yards. By following them up immediately, 

 or leaving them for half an hour or so, you may, to almost 

 a certainty, flush them again, singly, or in small com- 

 panies of three or four. 



When the season is well advanced, say from about the 

 tenth to the twentieth of October, they change their feed- 

 ing grounds,, especially if the weather be wet, when they 

 resort to beech and oak ridges. Then they are usually 

 found singly or in pairs, and will be harder to approach, 

 often flushing before the sportsman is within shooting dis- 

 tance. At this season of the year they frequently allow 

 the dog to approach within twenty or twenty-five yards, 

 when they run twice that distance before rising, and, in 

 all probability are out of gun-shot. When followed up 

 they will, as a rule, be found in comparatively open places: 



