90 SHOOTING AND SALMON FISHING 



came up and whispered me that he feared one or two of his 

 guests had not had quite their share of sport, while asking me 

 if I would mind taking a stand in the ensuing beat which at 

 the best would yield but a few shots. Cheerfully consenting, he 

 placed me himself in a spot to which we both knew pheasants 

 never flew, so quite contentedly I watched the birds running 

 past me to the forward guns. I was placed in an open space, 

 while on either side, some forty yards off, two large thick 

 oak trees shut me out from the guns to right and left. The 

 beaters drew level, and had passed me some distance, when 

 of a sudden all the birds in the beat began to fly back over 

 me, directly between these two trees. I had a very good 

 loader, so at them we went with a will, while in rather less 

 than seven minutes the whole hundred cartridges were disposed 

 of, while hardly anyone else fired a shot. This was " taking a 

 back seat " with a vengeance, and I could not help feeling 

 rather shy about the matter, yet the birds were all returning to 

 a part of the cover we had already beaten, where they would 

 have been lost, as far as that day was concerned. My loader said 

 I got seventy-four ; but the firing was so fast, I had no idea 

 myself what the score was, although sixty-nine were picked up 

 there and then. At the end of the beat, it turned out a stop, 

 who should have kept in a ditch outside the cover, had left 

 his place and taken up a position inside it, so that every bird 

 could see him, which fully accounted for their all being, most 

 unexpectedly, headed back to me. 



There is one matter on which keepers are often careless, 

 and that is gun-cleaning, for we find but few who will take the 

 trouble to do this properly, or to see that it is well done by 

 their assistants. It is, indeed, unpleasant to be handed a gun, 

 the stock, grip, and fore-end of which are almost dripping with 

 oil, while an examination discloses that the insides of the 

 barrels are not half bright, while incipient rust is forming on 

 the extractors, triggers, and breech-ends of the barrels. 



Hares give very poor sport when killed in cover, as they 



