MANAGEMENT OF THE GUN 129 



Before undertaking to write on shooting, the 

 question suggested itself, how far was I qualified 

 to help the beginner with advice and experiences ? 

 Looking over my own qualifications, I find that the 

 only shooting I can write of with knowledge is of a 

 simple kind. Important days with pheasants, where 

 everything is organised scientifically, I know prac- 

 tically nothing of ; nor have I ever shot a driven 

 grouse. So I intend saying nothing of these branches 

 of the sport. To write of them I should have to 

 draw largely from other books, which would be poor 

 fun. Mr. Portman will tell of those branches in a 

 chapter on advanced shooting that follows ; and, if 

 skill with the gun and an experience of the chief 

 shoots in the country count, you could hardly find 

 a stronger guide. 



This chapter will deal with shooting of a much 

 less ambitious sort, of wild pheasants and of par- 

 tridges for the most part walked up, of the wood- 

 pigeon, of an occasional hare and woodcock ; above 

 all, of rabbiting by the aid of dogs alone, or of dogs 

 with two or three beaters, and of ferreting. Some- 

 times we shall be among the clover and the sain- 

 foin and swedes in autumn, at others ferreting the 

 hedge-banks and the burrows in the coppices and 

 high wood, or visiting the furze-bushes on the 

 commons, where the rabbits lie out when the cows 

 and cowboys have not been too much about. We 

 shall stalk rabbits, too, in the glades and woodland 

 paths in summer, either with a gun or a rook rifle, 

 and lie in wait for the great flocks of wood-pigeons 



I 



