LATE IN THE SEASON. 89 



LATE IN THE SEASON. 



JHEKE is a vast difference between shooting Part- 

 ridges during the first of the shooting season, and 

 shooting Partridges when the season is far advanced. 

 At the first of the shooting season in October the 

 birds are young and tame, they have not the power of wing 

 and strength that they would have later in the season ; they 

 rise slowly, and offer a beautiful and easy mark to shoot at, 

 and if hit are easily brought down and killed. But late in 

 the season they become full grown and full feathered, and 

 are stronger on the wing, and are wild from frequent flush- 

 ing, and are suspicious of both man and dog, and oftentimes 

 they will not allow either to approach them close, but will 

 rise ten feet in the advance with startling suddenness, and 

 fly with great velocity, and pitch for cover as swift as bul- 

 lets. Then it is, and it is at this season of the year that 

 the sportsman finds some difficulty in bringing them down . 

 To kill them flying at this season of the year truly requires 

 an art, and the skill of the sportsman is fully tested. It is 

 at this season of the year that you see amateur sportsmen 

 and bad shots banging away their powder and shot without 

 filling their game-bags. The number of birds bagged by 

 amateur sportsmen and bad shots, at an advanced period of 

 the season, are very few, unless by chance they should rake 

 a covey huddled on the ground. The very best skill of the 

 sportsman is required when the season is far advanced, as 

 the birds then are extremely swift and wild, and often, with 

 skill and experience, the very best of sportsmen fails to bring 

 home a heavy bag. Late in the season always try and get 

 started and begin your shooting early in the morning, and 

 at sunset in the afternoon is late enough to continue it. It 

 makes birds very wild to shoot at later hours, besides being 

 12 



