PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING. 109 



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 very 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 always calculate on making a tolerable bag. 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 

 sport 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 proprietors ; 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 

 October, 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, 62^ 

 brace in seven consecutive days my best day being 14 

 brace. But my performances are nothing as compared 

 with those of some of my acquaintance that is, supposing 

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



In Partridge-shooting, as in other pursuits, strange 

 tilings sometimes occur. One day, in September, 1804, when 

 a friend of mine, Captain Roos, of the Swedish army, was 

 enjoying this amusement, his Pointer Happ one of the 

 steadiest that I know found a covey, and, whilst standing 



