loo SPORT IN EUROPE 



This game is shot in different ways, according- to season. In the 



autumn it falls to the shot-gun, when beaters are employed, and is 



bagged with hares, foxes, and pheasants ; btit it is 



_, , capricious and shy, and therefore difficult to drive 



Shot-guns. ^ ^ 



together with other game. The roe are rarely there- 

 fore in proportion to the other kinds shot on these occasions. The 

 roedeer is best driven together with the fox, as both require that 

 some account shall be taken of the wind, as well as exact knowledge 

 of the locality and the habits of the game. 



The foxes and fox-shootings are not so numerous as they used 

 to be fifteen to twenty years ago, for the sportsmen now want 

 heavier bags of hares and pheasants, so the foxes are in many 

 places destroyed by traps or poison. 



That shooting with beaters is more lively and the bags much 

 larger is unquestionable, but the sportsman gets to some extent 

 demoralised. He is not, as he should be, quiet as a mouse at his 

 post ; he is inclined to chatter with his neighbour ; and he even 

 indulo'es in an occasional cioarette. The roedeer sees him, gets 

 scent of him, and then breaks back through the line of beaters. 



The most amusing and best -appreciated sport is to shoot the 



roedeer with rifie, either in the winter, when the animals are less 



shy, and the snow makes it easier to follow a wounded 



^.„ deer, or in summer, when only the buck must be shot. 



Rifle. ^ 



On good shooting grounds the sport may be combined 

 with an agreeable after-dinner drive. You jump from your brake 

 at a proper distance from the buck, and fire while his attention is 

 drawn to the carriage ; but the best shooting is on foot, for preference 



