IN SHOOTING. 143 



are so thin as not to be the least incumbrance between 

 the triggers. Of these arid other gloves, the best and 

 strongest that I can any where procure are sold by Mr. 

 Painter, No. 27, Fleet-street. 



If a person is extremely nervous from hearing the 

 report of his gun, or from the noise of the rising game, 

 let him prime his ears with cotton, and his inside with 

 tincture of bark and sal volatile. 



It sometimes happens that a covey of birds is always 

 to be found, but never to be got at ; and are always 

 seen going over one hedge, as soon as you arrive at the 

 other. In this case let the shooter, if distressed for a 

 brace of birds, place himself behind the hedge they fly 

 over, and send a person round to drive the birds to him. 

 He will then probably get a double shot, and very likely 

 disperse the covey. 



When birds are so wild that they will not lie, you 

 often see them running across a barren field ; in which 

 case keep out of sight, if you can, and make a little 

 noise, in order to drive them to the opposite hedge, 

 but do not show yourself, or they will, perhaps, fly up, 

 and be afterwards so much on the alert as not to be got 

 at without great manoeuvring. 



When birds run (but are not visible on the ground, 

 and the dogs keep drawing across a whole field), as they 

 will do, most particularly in a dry easterly wind, they 

 are almost sure to get up at a long distance. My recipe 

 on this occasion is to have a man on horseback, and 

 make him take an immense circle, and after he thinks 

 he has arrived well a-head of the birds, to gallop up 

 and down in a transverse direction, by which means, 

 between the two enemies, the covey are often induced to 

 squat down close in their own defence ; or, what is even 



