PARTRIDGES, PHEASANTS, HARES, ETC. 87 



our bags and magazines our cartridge bill has decreased, 

 although the amount of shooting has remained the same. 



If several guns are told off to come down a ride, each 

 keeping equi-distant in front of the other as the beat 

 advances, and if more guns have been posted ahead, then 

 it is not good form for those who have been walking to 

 leave the cover as they come to the end of it, and place 

 themselves between those who have been posted outside. 

 Those who have been moving will have had shooting the 

 whole way along the ride, while the stationary ones will 

 hardly get any sport till the beaters are nearing where they 

 will perhaps have been standing idle in the cold for some 

 time; therefore, it is not right for those who have already 

 had their share of the sport to come forward to take a 

 double allowance. Those who have been shooting their way 

 to their posted friends should either stand still, one behind 

 the other, waiting for chances flying back, or, should they 

 be meant to come forward, the beaters should be halted while 

 they gain the open, where they ought to be placed well in 

 the rear of those who have been waiting. 



During the rearing season, young pheasants have many 

 enemies in winged and ground vermin, and even "the harm- 

 less necessary cat " is often a great culprit ; but that ducks 

 should be classed in the black list and done to death on that 

 account will perhaps be read with surprise. Nevertheless, at 

 Kilmaronaig during one breeding season not a day passed but 

 what one or two young pheasants vanished, and for many 

 days the keeper could not discover the thief ; until one evening, 

 while lying up on the watch, he saw an old drake from the 

 farmyard waddle towards a lot of young birds ; then looking 

 them carefully over, he quickly snapped one up and swallowed 

 it whole. The rascal was shot on the spot and brought 

 to the house, where his crop was cut open, when entombed 

 therein were not one but two young pheasants, and this was 

 at a time of year when they were nearly as big as tennis balls. 



