104 THE SPORTSMAN IN FRANCE. 



covered with invitations to dinners, balls^ 

 soirees, a^d suppers ; indeed, the famihes 

 seemed to vie with each other in catering 

 for our amusement. Our evenings during 

 the winter were passed most agreeably, 

 and when the weather permitted we 

 visited the marshes. Here we found 

 ample employment for our guns ; the 

 snipes in great abundance ; and when 

 we chose to vary our sport, we could 

 always command eight or ten couples of 

 cocks in some alders and brushwood which 

 skirt the higher ground towards Quim- 

 perle. 



We occasionally fell in with a few 

 coveys of birds, but the season was draw- 

 ing fast to a close, and, moreover, having 

 been fired at and frightened by the native 

 chasseurs in the early part of the shoot- 

 ing months, the partridges had w^iseiy 

 betaken themselves to the woods for 

 shelter and security. 



In the meadow lands, to the left of the 



