The fLYDTG AND GROUND GAME OP THE "YANGTZE VALLEY 2l 



the cover as pheasants invariably attempt to " burst " on the water side. If only two guns 

 are shooting a cover, one should get to the lee side at once, and the other work round to him 

 leisurely, each a little forward of the beaters. If three guns are working cover, two might be 

 sent forward before the beaters enter it, and the third gun take, from the most advantageous 

 spots he can, his chance with any game that might double back. What would be worth the 

 attempt would be an organized copse beat for four guns, with a dozen beaters who would 

 keep in something like line, and a brace of musical spaniels, and the day devoted to this 

 kind of shooting and nothing else. Hen pheasants are particularly fond of the long feathery 

 grass sown in the mulberry groves, and of such standing cotton as is furrowed with beans. 

 But, after all, there is no saying where pheasants may not be found, for they often lie in the 

 most unlikely and unexpected places. The covers round the farm-houses are almost invari- 

 able finds, the birds, doubtless, being attracted by the warmth of the situation, the proximity 

 to plentiful food, and the association of their domestic congeners. In the evening birds are 

 out in the open and only afford the longest of shots. If possible make a wide beat; walk 

 down-wind, for the birds seek the shelter of the furrows, and let the flanking guns get well 

 forward of the beaters. "Mum" should be the word for all concerned. 



In this part of China pheasant shooting generally ends with the native new-year holi- 

 days in February, sometimes earlier. It would be a good rule not to shoot, and certainly 

 not to buy, hen pheasants after December — 



" For when the hen to thy discerning view 



Her sable pinions spreads of duskier hue, 



Your common sense's prudent warning hear 



And spare the offspring of the coming year." 

 However, whenever and wherever met with the pheasant always affords sport, for it 

 possesses all those qualities, pluck, strength, cunning and speed which command the strictest 

 attention to business on the part of the shooter. There is no golden rule in pheasant shooting, 

 but he who would hope to be successful should have some knowledge of woodcraft which 

 after all is almost the keynote of shooting, be in something like fettle, and above all things 

 keep the equal temper, taking with complacency as they come bitter and sweet alike. 

 Pheasant shooting in China is the foxhunting of the gun, for though the bird itself is not 

 difficult to shoot yet but too often it is an uncommonly difficult bird to recover for, once on 

 the ground and only winged, it will soon give ocular demonstration of the possession in a 

 marvellous degree, amongst other powers, of the speed of the greyhound, the doubling of the 

 hare, the artfulness of the fox, while if hard pressed it will take to the water and swim, nay 

 even dive, like a duck. All of which things call for a huntsman's acumen. No. 8 shot is 

 sufficiently heavy for pheasants at all ordinary times though No. 6 is the more general 

 load. In high wind or wet weather No. 4 shot may with advantage be indulged in, but some 

 shooters have recourse to Nos. 3 and 2, with more imaginary than real success, probably. 



PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 



" The partridge bursts away on whirring wings " — Beattik. 



The Bamboo Partridge {Bambusicola thoracica). 



This bird held in such high esteem as a table luxury, and spoken alliteratively of as 

 "the table's toothsome titbit" is neither a partridge, francolin or colin, but partakes of the 



