144 FINISHING LESSONS 



better, to disperse before they take flight. In beating 

 a narrow strip of turnips, with two shooters, when birds 

 are wild and run, let one of them enter the croft about 

 80 yards in front of the other, and walk on in echellon, 

 as the man in advance will then have the wild ones 

 coming to him, and his partner the tame ones, if some 

 of the birds happen to lie well. 



If you have a piece of turnips very near a small 

 covert, into which you wish birds to be driven for good 

 shooting, at a time when the birds have become wild, 

 be careful what you are about in windy weather ; be- 

 cause birds, when shot at, will of course fly much farther 

 than if quietly sprung, and particularly if borne away 

 by the wind. It will often happen, therefore, that by 

 your refusing two or three shots on such an occasion, 

 you will get twenty or thirty shots after the birds 

 (which from running among the turnips frequently be- 

 come dispersed) are dropped all over the covert ; whereas 

 if this covert is not very large, they might probably 

 have flown beyond it had you discharged a gun. Many 

 eager sportsmen, however, would be loath to trust to 

 such a lottery, and argue, that " a bird in hand is 

 worth two in the bush ;" but such I have proved to be 

 the case ; and this, as well as every other part that re- 

 lates to shooting, has been pencilled down in the field, 

 with a query as to its future confirmation ; and if it 

 has stood repeated tests, entered in MS. for this work. 



If birds are so very wild that all fair and quiet 

 shooting fails, they are still, ninety-nine times in a 

 hundred, to be got, if absolutely wanted, to win a 

 wager ; for a sick person ; or any very particular pur- 

 pose. But the process for this is any thing but steady 

 sporting, and can only be well followed in an open 



