SOME RECORDS AND COMPARISONS 235 



number of men, or the artificial means of dealing 

 with a vast stretch of country introduced by Baron 

 de Hirsch. 



Prince TrautmansdorfF s bags, however, often ap- 

 proached and sometimes exceeded 1,000 brace of 

 birds in a single day, and I believe that from 300 to 

 500 brace in a day have from time to time been 

 killed at several places in Austria and Hungary. 



Baron de Hirsch's principle is to shoot, as one 

 beat and in one day, an extent of from 8,000 to 

 10,000 acres, which is fed fronTa much larger region. 

 Of these beats he has seventeen, distinct and separate 

 from one another. The birds are netted, from Sep- 

 tember i, on the outlying ranges of his estates, 

 brought into the various centres of these beats, and 

 turned loose. 



The centres consist of squares of trees, or four 

 belts joined at the corners, so as to make a square, 

 with a road leading from each corner, the interior of 

 the square inside the belts of trees being covered by 

 a low rough covert. Outside this square the guns, 

 from 120 to 150 yards apart, stand facing outwards, 

 having, of course, artificial stands to shield them ; 

 each gun being therefore sufficiently far from his 

 neighbour to be quite independent of him as regards 

 shooting or picking up. 



