154 PHEASANT SHOOTING, &C. 



flavour, and become somewhat similar in taste to a dry 

 red-legged partridge. The Highland shepherds poach 

 them in the snow, by means of decoying them to an 

 ambush with an imitation of their call, and then raking 

 them with a large gun. 



To send grouse any distance, put some pepper to the 

 parts where they have been shot, as well as into their 

 mouths, and then pack them, carefully separated from 

 each other, and kept as air-tight as possible, in boxes of 

 hops. 



SHOOTING PHEASANTS, 



&c. &c. 



WITH A FEW DIRECTIONS TO THE INEXPERIENCED FOR RE- 

 COVERING THEIR OWN GAME, IF UNHANDSOMELY DRIVEN 

 FROM THEM, SHOOTING IN COVERT, &c. &c. 



For shooting pheasants it often becomes necessary 

 to start very early in the morning, as they are apt to 

 lie during the day in high covert, where it is almost 

 impossible to shoot them till the leaf has fallen from 

 the trees. We can never be at a loss in knowing where 

 to go for pheasants, as we have only to send some one 

 the previous evening, for the last hour before sunset, to 

 watch the different barley or oat stubbles of a woodland 

 country, and on these will be regularly displayed the 

 whole contents of the neighbouring coverts. It then 

 remains to be chosen, which woods are the best calcu- 

 lated to shoot in ; and, when we begin beating them, 

 it must be remembered to draw the springs, so as to 

 intercept the birds from the old wood. If the coverts 

 are wet, the hedge-rows will be an excellent beginning, 



