204 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



owner, and not without difficulty she forced her 

 way through the beech bushes. In this way we 

 worked all the fences, getting one or two more black 

 game and a rabbit or two. Once a cock pheasant 

 flew up temptingly, but his time was not yet. 



Just as we decided to knock off for lunch, the red 

 setter pointed in some long grass and thistles. Going 

 to him we grassed the first partridges of the season. 

 The covey scattered, and I marked two which alighted 

 in some thorny scrub on a steep bankside which 



bordered a wheatfield. S , who was always a bit 



inclined to shirk, declined the climb, so I went alone, 

 and was rewarded by getting both. 



We sat down to lunch beside a rippling stream. 

 The sun was hot, and we did full justice to our 

 host's cider, which was excellent. Besides partridge, 

 ducks, and rabbits, we had bagged four and a half 

 brace of black game. 



The bag, of course, was laid out for examination, 

 and we were greatly pleased with the black game, for 

 these birds in the south are as forward at this season 

 as they would be in the Highlands in late October. 

 They were very different from the little things I had 

 seen killed on Scottish moors in the third week of 

 August. 



After lunch our beat was along the two very steep 

 sides of the little valley, and over the left-hand hill- 

 top. The fields were small here, but they held a fair 

 number of coveys of partridges, of which we took heavy 

 toll. As they got a bit wilder, they began to get up 

 as we were climbing the high banks that divided the 



