THE GUN 105 



we flush in the day always, I think, makes one or 

 two wing sounds at the start. I trod one out of the 

 brake-fern on the common which rose within a yard 

 of my gun. This bird swerved round a blackthorn 

 before travelling four yards, for a beater stood in 

 the line it first took ; it rose clear of a strip of high 

 underwood within the next few yards, and was over 

 the road and lost to view in the " shoots " of 

 Pound Copse ere I could run round the blackthorn. 

 Random as the woodcock is in its day flights, only 

 half alive, it yet has this power to dodge and swerve 

 and mount the air suddenly, which is such a wonder- 

 ful feature of strong flight. The body of a bird has 

 through the gift of wings something that answers 

 to our presence of mind. The woodcock's is a physical 

 presence of mind. 



The bags which I gave for example of a few hours' 

 quiet work in the wood and common, may seem 

 to some a mere playing with sport. But when I 

 write them down I know they stand for days with 

 no dull minute. This game has to be walked and 

 sought for hard at times. For one rabbit bagged, 

 two or three are shot at, either among the bunches 

 or hassocks on the common, or the shoots and high 

 coppices in the wood. Something, I admit, is wanting 

 when the bag is rabbits only. A brace of pheasants 

 real wild pheasants, some of them having the old 

 "black neck" or a woodcock, or hare, puts the 

 finishing touch; and then I admit nothing against 



