ROUGH SHOOTING 237 



owners ; in fact, as killers, they could only be 

 used by those who had no guides to rely on 

 except their own keen observation. The lay 

 of the land and the run of water had to be con- 

 sidered, also the varying kinds of vegetation. 



Fieldfares and blackbirds are very numerous 

 in and on the hedges at certain times and 

 seasons ; and these are now called schoolboys' 

 game-birds. This may apply to the pursuit of 

 them ; but the bringing to bag, or, correctly 

 speaking, pocket, is quite a different matter. 

 You must be quick to wait on a shrieking 

 blackbird when he dashes out of the hedge ; 

 and stalking fieldfares, unless they are starved 

 out and torpid with cold, when it would be 

 useless cruelty to shoot them, is a snare and 

 delusion. Larks, again, require straight powder ; 

 and under certain subtle atmospheric changes, 

 such as the grazing-flats are at times subject 

 to, all objects, animate or inanimate, look 

 double their real size. When shooting there 

 under these conditions, I have missed what 

 looked like fair shots, five times running, and 

 others did the same. Once, I remember, after 

 turning the matter over, it was agreed amongst 

 us to take, for the sake of experiment, one or 

 two sitting shots, although the lot of us four 



