316 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



The smaller hare, or rabbit, as it is usually and falsely 

 called, at this season lies in the same beats, making his 

 form sometimes among the brambles and weeds near the 

 side of the boundary stone-wall of some wheat or rye 

 stubble, sometimes among the pumpkin leaves and bare 

 stalks of a maizefield,- oftener among brush-heaps where 

 underwood has been trimmed up and piled, constantly in 

 dry brushy coppices, and never where an English sports- 

 man would first look for him among the ridges and fur- 

 rows of a fallow field. 



The larger hare, which turns white in winter, is becom- 

 ing rare, and is now found in but few localities. In the 

 Eastern States, about the Catskill Mountains, and in 

 Canada, it is plentiful. It is, however, but little pursued 

 or shot by sportsmen, though it would afford excellent 

 sport before beagles, and is killed principally for its culi- 

 nary value, which is great whether it be converted into 

 soup, or confectioned into ragouts ; for roasted, it is dry 

 and unsavory, even currant-jelly and herb-stuffing being 

 added in the estimate. 



When all these species of game, the latter alone 

 excepted, are found together, as is often the case in good 

 ground during the autumn, the shooting is the finest that 

 can be imagined ; the uncertainty what animal is about to 

 show itself before the point, and diversity of practice re- 

 quired for stopping whatever it may be in the finest style, 

 adding infinite variety and excitement to the sport. 



Of autumn shooting, however, quail may be regarded 

 as the most legitimate object, the other varieties coming 

 in incidentally, and being killed as they come, the ruffed 



