68 SHOOTING, 



around her with great care. Wlien tliey are about their full size, 

 or within a tliird of her o\vn bulk, they are left in a great measure I 

 to shift for themselves. 



THE SHOOTING OF PARTRIDGE. 



The shooting of partridges is a popular sport ; it is more univer- 

 sally entered into than any other of the sporting amusements of 

 Britaia. It is more homely and domestic than moor shooting ; and 

 can he enjoyed by the comparatively weak and aged. The suc- 

 cessful prosecution of it must necessarily vary with the numerous 

 circumstances under which it is enjoyed. If a sportsman has a 

 limited estate to shoot over with wliich he is well acquainted ; if 

 he has taken himself great care of his coveys of birds ; knows the.'r 

 haunts, their times of feeding, and resting ; if his enclosures are 

 small, and well fitted for the birds taking short flights ; if these, 

 and a hundred other minute and favourable matters fall to his lot, 

 his sport may, all other things being equal, be reasonably expected 

 to be much superior to what a mere stranger to the locality would 

 find. There are scarcely any two shooting locahties, or any two 

 sportsmen, that can be fairly put on a par with each other, in all 

 their diversified characters ; therefore, it is that we find so many 

 varied accounts of the sport, and so many different adventures 

 encountered in its prosecution. Every shooter has r history or 

 tale of his own to tell ; he has joys and sorrow, with which strangers 

 do not iatermeddle ; and lives and moves in a little world of his 

 own creation. 



We are told by distinguished sportsmen, that the footing of 

 partridges, though a very requisite qualification in pointers, 

 IS one of the last things that should be expected from them;; 

 for they are not to be rehed on until they get fairly to com- 

 prehend from the sportsman that they are not to cakk the bird ; 

 the only thmg reqmred of them is to point out where it is. It is 

 weU kno\vn that partridges will generally he closer and better to 

 dogs that wind them, than to those that track them ; the reason 

 given for this is, that when they are vraided, the dogs do not go 

 straightforward towards them, but foUow the scent left by their 

 devious course. When birds see dogs trace their footsteps down 

 wind they wiU fly off, for they cannot take the scent till they are 

 near them. Another matter is of some importance in commencing ! 

 partridge shooting in September, and that is, that do^s brought ( 

 immediately from the moors, and put upon the hunting of the 

 partridge, are in many cases unfit for the purpose for some days,^ 

 till they are again broken in to then- new task. The hunting of 

 grouse in the moors is an altogether different operation from tlie 

 work to be done in the fields in September. _ A dog that is really 

 well trained wiU soon find himseK at home in both occupations ; 

 but when this is not the case, there will always be more or less of 



