PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 69 



disappointment experienced from the sudden transition from two 

 such opposite modes of Hfe, 



Some sportsmen recommend being very early in the fiehl for the 

 partridge, while others maintain this is a comparatively useless 

 custom. Colonel Hawker says he never witnessed any great execu- 

 tion done before breakfast. To this it has been answered " True; 

 but, without putting ourselves to the expense of sending two or 

 three sturdy fellows to warn off intruders, if the birds have escaped 

 being killed by that time, they are certainly dispersed abroad ; and 

 the advantage of our knowing their feeding and basking grounds is 

 inulHlied." We think, however, that the Colonel is in this instance 

 • substantially correct. We have often oui-selves made early starts 

 'when the weather appeared very auspicious; and we must say 

 , that we never succeeded to our wishes, nor did we ever do much 

 execution till the sun hadrisenfor some time, or the noon-day hour 

 arrived. We believe that if we could take anything like an accurate 

 census of sportsmen's success in partridge shooting dui-mg the 

 months of September and October, we would find the most produc- 

 tive hours to range from eleven till three in the afternoon. Of course 

 general niles of this kind camiot be laid down but with nmnerous 

 reservations and quahfications ; but we beUeve the result of a test 

 of this kind would establish the truth of the point without any doubt. 

 There are other advantages to be realised by the sportsman, uncon- 

 nected with the capture of game, which are worth notice. The habit 

 induces good healtli, and tends very muchto strengthen and preserve 

 it. It has an excellent and sustaining effect on the animal spirits ; 

 and these are no mean things coimected with successful sporting 

 with the gun. After the month of October, and from this to the end 

 i of the partridge season, we shoidd not insist on being earlier in the 

 i field than about mid-day. The weather now becomes sour and 

 lungenial in the fore part of the day. 



The time of year and the weather have a great influence oyer 

 the birds, as well as the state they have been in relative to quiet- 

 mess from previous fowling excursions. The flights they take vary 

 with the nature of the country they are bred in. Where the 

 enclosures are small, and the general aspect of the country un- 

 dulating, short flights are taken; but where the fields are of large 

 extent, and the landscape bears a champagne aspect, there, on the 

 contrary, the birds will often take a mile or two at one bound. 



It is laid down as a general rule, that a prudent sportsman will 

 not injui-e his diversion by following the bii'ds every day in the 

 same track. Relative to the shooting of partridge in windy weather 

 there have been keen discussions. The weight of argument seems 

 decidedly, however, in favour of those who maintain that this kind 

 of weather is not upon the whole favourable to sport. Indeed, 

 boisterous weather can only be favourable under one view, and that 

 is, because birds do not so readily hear the approachof the sports- 

 man. It may like\vise be observed, that in a liigh wind they seem 

 bewildered and stunned, and will often lie so close as to afford good 



