PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING. 169 



in which case one advances slowly and cautiously, so as 

 not to excite him ; and if, on their rising, you kill one of 

 them, let him fetch it, and then caress him ; but he should 

 never get into the very bad habit of squeezing or biting 

 the game." 



Partridge-shooting in the cultivated parts of Scandi- 

 navia — in Sweden at least — is verv fair: not that birds 

 are numerous, for one seldom meets with more than a covey 

 or two in a day, but owing to the favourable nature of the 

 ground ; so that, with a good dog and a good marker, one 

 may alwnvs calculate on makin<>' a tolerable basr. I here 

 speak of the wilder part of the country, or that owned for 

 the most part by the peasantry ; for on the estates of the 

 gentry, which in general are preserved, very much better 

 spoi't is obtainable. But then, as a set-off, it has always 

 appeared to me that the fewer birds you shoot the more 

 you are likely to be in favour with the propi'ietors ; and 

 no wonder, considering the comparative scarcity of 

 Partridges in the Peninsula. 



To give a better idea of the sport obtainable in Scan- 

 dinavia, I may mention that, on two different occasions, in 

 Octol)er, when on short excursions in the more southern 

 parts of Sweden, I have, to my own gun, bagged upwards 

 of 100 brace of Partridges in the course of from fourteen 

 to sixteen days' shooting; and, on another occasion, in 

 October, though this was in an opposite direction, 02^ 

 brace in seven consecutive days— my best day being 14 

 brace. But my performances are nothing as comjiared 

 with those of some of my acquaintance — that is, supposing 

 what tliey tell me is to be received absque grano sails. 



In Partridge-shooting, as in other pursuits, strange 

 things sometimes occur. One day, in September,! 804, when 

 a friend of mine. Captain Roos, of the Swedish army, Avas 

 enjoying this amvisement, his Pointer Hajjj) — one of the 

 steadiest that I know — found a covev, and, whilst standing 



