138 FINISHING LESSONS 



ground, and the dogs keep drawing across a whole 

 field), as they will do, most particularly in a dry 

 easterly wind, they are almost sure to get up at a long 

 distance. My recipe on this occasion is to have a 

 man on horseback, and make him take an immense 

 circle, and after he thinks he has arrived well a-head 

 of the birds, to gallop up and down in a transverse 

 direction, by which means, between the two enemies, 

 the covey are often induced to squat down close in 

 their own defence ; or, what is even better, to disperse 

 before they take flight. 



If you have a piece of turnips very near a small 

 covert, into which you wish birds to be driven for 

 good shooting, at a time when the birds have become 

 wild, be careful what you are about in windy weather ; 

 because birds, when shot at, will of course fly much 

 farther than if quietly sprung, and particularly if 

 borne away by the wind. It will often happen, there- 

 fore, that by your refusing two or three shots on 

 such an occasion, you will get twenty or thirty shots 

 after the birds (which from running among the 

 turnips frequently become dispersed) are dropped all 

 over the covert ; whereas if this covert is not very 

 large, they might probably have flown beyond it had 

 you discharged a gun. Many eager sportsmen, how- 

 ever, would be loath to trust to such a lottery, and 

 argue, that " a bird in hand is worth two in the 

 bush ;" but such I have proved to be the case ; and 

 this, as well as every other part that relates to shoot- 



