276 CHASING AND RACING 



attributes, I am inclined to direct on them the lemon 

 eye of contempt. 



Field sports proper consist, to my mind, only of 

 hunting, coursing, falcony, angling, and shooting. 



There are forms of the last-named which I would 

 eliminate from the category. Pigeon shooting, i.e. trap 

 shooting, of course ; for its most ardent votaries never 

 claimed it as a sport. It is, or rather was, essentially a 

 trial of skill, with money or other prizes offered for 

 competition ; moreover, it cannot be denied that it was 

 a medium for considerable gambling. The Bill which 

 was passed in the summer of 1 92 1 enacted that shooting 

 birds or animals from traps or other contrivances or 

 from the hand is illegal. 



The shooting of hand-reared pheasants or wild- 

 duck at battues, where the birds are segregated in 

 limited areas, so that they are easily located by the 

 keeper, who is cognizant of their numbers, is a very 

 doubtful " sport." This, too, I should call a trial of 

 skill, and it is only the absence of betting and the award 

 of prizes which raises it above the level of pigeon 

 shooting ; for here we have hundreds of one species 

 only, hemmed in with wire netting and prevented from 

 breaking away at awkward points by " stops, " i.e. small 

 boys, whose sticks, kept tapping, turn the running 

 pheasants to the right about and send them within the 

 encircling line of beaters. By such methods an 

 efficient drive ensures that the birds can be driven out 

 at practically any desired corner, where the guns are 



