PIIEASAXT SHOOTING. 53 



To be sure, in these high fells, you have the annoyance 

 of hearing the game rise and rarely getting a shot ; 

 but generally you are amply compensated for this 

 penance, by getting some good shooting in the low cover. 

 Sportsmen who are shy of undertaking this task will 

 rarely make a good bag in large woods. This, I feel 

 confident, all old sportsmen will admit. I do not 

 include in this class your decided battue shooters. 



In young plantations, particularly of larch, where the 

 grass grows strong and high from being exposed to the 

 sun and air, I have had good pheasant shooting in 

 October, as the birds lie well there, also in thick hedge- 

 rows and willow beds ; for the hedgerow shooting there 

 should be two guns, a brace of strong steady spaniels, 

 and a retriever. Pheasants are very fond of lying in 

 willow beds and moist situations during the warmth of 

 the day, for it is a bird that requires much water. * In 

 the middle of the day in this month, the sportsman fully 

 enjoys a glass of old October ale. 



" Nor wanting is the broMTi October clra-mi, 

 Mature and perfect, from its dark retreat, 

 Of thirty years, and now his honest front 

 Flames in the light refulgent, not afraid 

 Even with the vineyard's best produce to vie." 



Thomsox. 



The pheasant, which is now found in most parts of 

 the kingdom, was brought from the country through 

 which the river Phasis takes its course, and from which 

 it derives its name. This river pursues its rapid course 

 from the Iberian Caucasus, the most lofty and craggy 



* " The Bristol Times" states that a party of gentlemen, shooting on 

 Mr. Ward's Manor of Fern Park, killed, in one withy bed, the extra- 

 ordinary number of fifty -three brace of pheasants. 

 E 3 



