CHAPTER XIX. 



PHEASANT-SHOOTING. 



" I DON'T bother much about pheasant-shooting ; it's 

 all very well for those who have got hundreds of acres 

 of wood, and who can afford to rear birds for turning 

 down, but it doesn't come much in my way." 



I fancy I hear some of my readers talking like 

 this. I grant you, my dear sir, that there is some 

 truth in the observation, but for all that I have some 

 very pleasant recollections of rough days' shooting, on 

 which we had plenty of fun, and the bag consisted 

 principally of pheasants. It is true the actual shooting 

 does not contribute much to the fun, for the man who 

 cannot make sure of a cock pheasant getting up out 

 of a hedgerow ought, in theory, to be deprived of his 

 gun. In practice, however, we have all missed them 

 sometimes and seen them missed, too, by shots of 

 some reputation. That they ought not to be missed 

 can be shown if, indeed, it is not too obvious to 

 require demonstration from the fact that I have shot 

 them so on several occasions with a rook-rifle. By 

 the way, it is not (crede experto) at all a bad way of 

 collecting a few birds for the table to walk round the 

 coverts towards evening with a pottering retriever and 



