54 DESCRIPTION OF A DAy's 



In short, a better field for a sportsman cannot 

 exist ; and happy is the man who, during the three 

 winter months, has a yacht at his command, 

 half a dozen good spaniels, a retriever, and plenty 

 of time at his disposal. 



The covers are very large and thick, and in 

 some parts very wet. Any one who undertakes 

 to shoot there must be well able to endure a 

 hard day's w^ork, and must not care for wet, or the 

 largest, sharpest, and most disagreeable thorns 

 that ever tore a fustian jacket. A little perse- 

 verance, too, is necessary, because woodcocks 

 are very fickle birds ; and one day a spot may be 

 found crowded with them, where, on another, 

 scarcely a single bird may be flushed. The duck- 

 shooting requires considerable patience and great 

 skill, but a plentiful bag of the finest mallards is 

 sure to reward the man who takes the trouble to 

 go after them. The snipe are, as snipe always 

 will be, occasionally very wild, but they are so 

 plentiful, that a good shot may be tolerably 

 sure of bringing home twenty couple. Captain 

 Cunynghame, of the 60th Rifles, bagged one day 

 by himself, in two hours and a-half, thirty-two 

 couple, and how many more he might have shot 



