388 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



couple of guns and an attendant loader. Over- 

 much shooting savours of the shambles ; there 

 is too much of the business element for real 

 pleasure ; the incessant slaughter is sickening, 

 and after a time the perpetual firing becomes 

 monotonous, and tiring to body and nerves alike. 

 To stand at the head of some warm-lying 

 covert on such a morning as I have attempted 

 to describe, and while the sticks of the beaters 

 as yet sound but faintly in the distance, is 

 delightful. As we move up to the post assigned 

 to us, a jay flies screaming and chattering out 

 of an elm-tree ; a heavy flapping of wings, and 

 some wood-pigeons steal away ; a blackbird goes 

 screaming across the turnip-field and down the 

 hedgerow ; a squirrel, which had been busily feed- 

 ing on the nuts which strew the ground under 

 the big beech-tree at the corner of the ride, 

 hurriedly scrambles up the trunk, and, scampering 

 along an overhanging branch, disappears. The 

 fern is trembling at the side of the ditch, and a 

 second later a ruddy old dog-fox trots leisurely 

 away into the turnips. The old scoundrel has 

 been out on the spree, and overslept himself. At 

 all events, we may be sure he has been up to 

 some rascality. It's lucky for him that it is not 

 a hunting-day, or his well-whiskered mask might 

 ere nightfall have adorned the kennel-door. While 

 we have been watching him, a hare has given us 

 the slip so much the better for the hare. A 

 rabbit is coming straight towards us along the 



