20 WITH BOAT AND QiTS IN TfiE YANGTZE VALLEY. 



have only moved on to such places where they meet with less disturbance; in support of 

 which theory may be adduced the fact of the comparatively poor bags made at Wuhu in 

 1894, and the general statement that many spots there had been "shot out" by native 

 gunners; while, on the other hand, birds have been in very full supply in the highly 

 cultivated, but now seldom visited, country lying in the triangle formed by Tanyang, 

 Kintang and Poee. Again, pheasants have been unusually plentiful of late in the Shanghai 

 radius, and this despite increasing persecution in season and out of season, the sharp eyes 

 of children in the fields, and a husbandry that is brisk as ever. But from most quarters 

 have come accounts of "lots of birds" this season (1909), which, in a measure, may be 

 accounted for by the unusually long, dry spring and autumn, so favourable to the rearing 

 of a second brood. For this last reason alone, if not for the more generous one of sparing 

 damage to growing crops, it would be as well to delay the commencement of the 

 shooting season until the last week in October, or even later, for, even then, nide after 

 nide of cheepers are very frequently come across of so small growth as not to be worth 

 powder and shot. Again, it is a common experience that it is often-times too hot for a 

 whole day's shooting in October, and that the game does not keep. 



On a long trip in winter it is unwise to take the field too early in the day, for 

 not only do gun and dog stand every chance of a good wetting from the melting of the 

 overnight hoar frost, but the birds will be disturbed, and, it may be, betake themselves just 

 beyond the shooter's beat: thus preventing what otherwise might have been a good bag, 

 and, perhaps, of occasioning the return of the gun to the boat disgusted, possibly with the 

 opinion that the country was " shot out." 



Pheasants begin to feed about dawn and, if undisturbed, may prolong their meal 

 until perhaps 9 o'clock, when they usually commence to seek their retreats. From 10 

 to 2 o'clock is the best time to get copse shooting, as it is also to beat the great reed and 

 grass beds. A little later the birds drop into the islets in the lagoons, the sedgy margins of 

 ponds and creeks, and in fact wherever water is about. After 4 p.m., in December and 

 January, the birds seem to "affect" the open ploughed grounds and make for the grass 

 lands as dusk approaches. 



Early in the season, in October and November, the best sport is to be had in the 

 growing crops of beans, buckwheat, cotton and wild paddy. Dogs will not be of much use 

 in such covers, especially in the two first-named, as they are so thick and tangled that the 

 only means of progression is by a succession of high, wild plunges which not only does 

 a lot of damage to the standing crops, but must throw the poor animals constantly off 

 the scent, and so afford a wounded bird every opportunity of escaping, only to meet a 

 lingering death. But a retrieving dog that will keep to heel until told to "seek dead" will 

 add both birds to the bag and zest to the sport. A more satisfactory way of going about 

 matters is for the guns, one on each side of a field, to keep a few yards ahead of the 

 beaters, who should walk in the furrows where possible, and gently rustle the crop stalks 

 with their bamboos. Hearing the end of the field, the beaters should stop until the guns 

 have had time to get stationed quite at the end. It is marvellous, sometimes, what a number 

 of birds will rise at the bitter end of a well-beaten field. Copses, high reeds and similar 

 covers should, when practicable, be beaten down-wind, for the reason that birds usually run 

 down to the warm lee end, but care should be taken to protect any water that may adjoin 



