PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 377 



these disadvantages were not without some merit, 

 inasmuch as the delay afforded opportunity for rest 

 and breathing-time. Under the present system 

 there is too much hurry and pressing forward. 

 More birds are doubtless killed, but more powder 

 is wasted, and more game crippled. And lastly, 

 though not least, what has become of the well- 

 broken pointers and setters which formerly added 

 so greatly to the pleasure of shooting ? Gone, 

 never to return, and, except in the grouse districts, 

 well-nigh unattainable. Certainly one-half of the 

 pleasure of shooting in former days consisted in 

 watching the dogs at work. Few things were 

 more pleasing than to see a staunch, well-broken 

 dog stop suddenly short in his quartering, and lash 

 round to his point with every muscle fixed and 

 rigid as if carved in stone. We can only bewail 

 the introduction of reaping-machines, and the 

 causes which have brought about so radical a 

 change in one of our most popular field-sports, 

 and sigh for the days of auld lang syne. 



Under the present system, the stubbles, such 

 as they are, must be walked over in order to put 

 the birds into the roots, or whatever description 

 of covert may be available for the purpose ; and 

 this walking for hours, often under a broiling sun, 

 and with little or no shooting to speak of, is not 

 only toilsome, but desperately monotonous, work, 

 occupying a considerable portion of the day ; 

 after a morning so spent, one's energies are not a 

 little slackened, and just at the very time when 



