190 NATUEAL HISTOEY SKETCHES. 



have a little good quail-shooting when they first came, 

 and before they settled down to their breeding haunts. 

 February and March would be the best months for 

 general shooting ; duck and kangaroo would keep them 

 employed during the winter, and it is, indeed, hard if 

 they could not afford to give the birds a three months' 

 rest out of twelve, especially as they would reap the 

 benefit of it themselves, and as during the hot summer 

 season shooting is far more a toil than a pleasure, and 

 half the game is spoilt by the heat. 



I am not here alluding to the professional shooter alone. 

 It would be far more satisfactory to those sportsmen who 

 merely follow the chase as an amusement, for they might 

 then be always certain of a good day's sport within an 

 easy distance from town, which is very doubtful now, 

 when men are roaming over the country with guns, dis- 

 turbing the birds during the whole of the breeding 



I suppose there is already some law of trespass out 

 here, but I don't know how it stands. This, however, 

 I do know, that there is always bother enough if by 

 chance the shooter enters a private paddock, especially 

 near town. For my part, I hated the very sight of a 

 three-rail fence; and half the pleasure of shooting in 

 this wild country was taken away whenever I had to 

 enter an enclosure, or ask leave to beat for my game. 



It is very properly prohibited to shoot the ducks 

 which resort to the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne 

 within a certain distance of the enclosure, in fact, to 



