84 COCK SHOOTING 



be well up in the habits of the birds. There is no experienced game- 

 keeper available to post him at a coveted corner where the only 

 requisite is very straight powder. He has to learn, usually unaided, 

 to distinguish the coverts which hold cock year after year from 



A COVERT IN THE AUTHOR'S GROUNDS, RIVER BANK. LITTLE SALMON RIVER, 



HALIFAX, N.S. 

 POINTER WORKING ON WARM SCENT. 



those equally likely in appearance which never hold a single l>ud 

 A good knowledge of the ground is indispensable, and cannot be 

 had except at the price of many a hard tramp. 



The very best shooting is often just previously to tin- final 

 departure. One may visit nine coverts and get almost nothing, 

 for at this time the cock are here to-day and gone to-morrow. Y t in 

 the tenth the happy sportsman may meet a score or so of birds 

 which in the depth of the previous night watches have dropped 

 like tiny little rockets from a great height into its shelter. They 

 may be big-throated nine-ounce specimens from the fat alluvial 

 lands of Tantramar, or they may be dwarfed birds with short strung 

 wings from the north shore of the Bay of Chaleur, where plenty of 

 their favourite annelid diet has for some reason been hard to find ; 

 for different flights of birds differ in size almost as much relatively 

 us the cob differs from the Clvdosdnle carthorse. Yet. whth< i i>i 



