42 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



beating the last half of this wood I got the very best 

 place. The rabbits came out in a string ; and as it 

 was a sort of clearing, and they mostly slowed up to 

 look about them, there was less than no excuse for a 

 miss. When the beaters reached me, I had a regular 

 fortification of rabbits and a couple of hares piled up 

 all round me. 



About this time the hundred cartridges I had 

 brought out were all done. My host's brother handed 

 me a couple of handfuls. They were Schultze. What 

 a relief they were. My head had begun to ache from 

 the continual firing. I had then, yielding to old- 

 fashioned prejudice, never used wood powder. Since 

 that day, except when no other was obtainable, I have 

 never used black powder. 



At last our day began to draw to a close. We 

 had still an V shaped belt to beat, the lodge gates 

 being at the end of it. As we worked along it a cock 

 pheasant came out and I dropped him. There was 

 no one near me, so I picked him up to throw him to 

 one of the beaters in covert. As I did so I noticed 

 he was a very fine bird, with spurs about half an inch 

 long. 



" That's a patriarch," I said to myself. It was 

 fated that this was not the last I was to see of that 

 cock pheasant. 



As we approached the lodge, the trees got higher 

 and the pheasants came thicker. For a little while 

 the shooting was very pretty, but there were un- 

 fortunately not many birds. Most of them were laid 

 out on the grass when the last shot was fired. 



