254 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



other two guns stood outside. I had not gone far 

 when I heard the spaniel yap, and crash ! a warrantable* 

 deer broke through the covert before me. What 

 life a few members of the deer tribe afford in covert 

 shooting, even when, as in Somerset, they are sacred 

 from the gun ! This lends a charm to German 

 shooting. One never can tell when a roe or even 

 a bigger deer will afford variety to the day's sport. 



Is it useless to hope in these days of acclimatisation 

 that we may once more see some members of the deer 

 tribe haunting our larger English woodlands ? It is 

 true red deer do sad mischief, and so do fallow deer. 

 But I have never heard any complaints in Germany of 

 much damage done by the roe, which is essentially a 

 woodland deer. In the year 1890, sixty-five thousand 

 odd roe- deer were shot in Austria, and one million 

 three hundred thousand odd hares. It is hardly 

 likely that the roe-deer made much difference in the 

 damage, but one goes to few good shoots in Austria 

 where some at least of the graceful little creatures do 

 not help to swell the bag. 



As we emerged from the covert a woodcock rose 

 from some holly bushes and I was lucky enough to bag 

 him the first of the year. Our beat had enabled 

 them to add a brace of birds to the total, which was 

 twelve and a half brace of pheasants, one brace of 

 partridges, six couple of rabbits, a hare and a wood- 

 cock, and with this result we were very well satisfied. 



Any paper on pheasant-shooting would, however, 



* A warrantable deer, in stag-hunting phrase, is a deer fit for 

 hunting i.e., a stag four years old and upwards. 



