178 LEAVES FEOM A GAME BOOK. 



partridges, wlien I was somewhat taken aback by Lucy 

 asking me to shoot cocks only ! At the first it seemed 

 almost an impossibility. However, on learning from 

 the other guests that " the Squire " usually tried this 

 plan for the last few days of the season, I said I would 

 do my best; and any one will soon find, if all thought 

 of making a right and left is discarded, that the matter 

 is by no means a difficult one to accomplish, for, when 

 the light is good, with the hedges high enough to allow 

 the shooter to stand well back and thus enable him to 

 see the birds in front of him, the horse-shoe of the 

 cock shows out very clearly. Half-a-dozen good shots 

 working in this style during the last few days of the 

 season will be doing no slight service to that ground, 

 as cock partridges are ever too numerous, for the old 

 ones will not permit younger ones to nest anywhere 

 near them. 



