142 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



outline ; as in such case birds that stray soon march 

 away to your neighbours, and every pheasant you 

 lose of course adds to the cost of those you kill. Your 

 shooting should be round and compact in form. 



4. That is cut up by footpaths. They are a 

 pestilent nuisance; every loafer who uses them can 

 turn poacher with little trouble or risk. 



5. With very small inclosures. You cannot follow 

 up the game when shooting in small fields, as it soon 

 passes beyond your view. Partridges, in a small field, 

 will often spring up out of shot on your setting foot 

 in it, when if the birds are in a fairly large one you 

 can outmanoeuvre them. Fields of great size, such 

 as the forty-acre root fields of Lincoln, Norfolk, and 

 Cambridge, and the lowlands of Scotland, are, however, 

 worst of all unless you have an army of beaters at 

 your disposal. A ' sea ' of turnips is a heart-breaking 

 job to work with dogs, or to walk through. The birds 

 will be continually running from you, and if you do 

 manage to corner them up they all rise together. 

 Eoot fields of ten to twelve acres are quite large 

 enough for partridge shooting, especially when the 

 birds are followed and not driven. 



6. That chiefly consists of grass land. Pheasants 

 cannot feed off grass, and partridges will not find 

 shelter in it to lie to the gun. 



7. That has large woods. It is always difficult to 

 drive pheasants properly out of a large, straggling 

 covert ; if a wood is so large that it has to be driven 



