viii THE COMPLETE SHOT 



the case a quarter of a century ago, when nevertheless the 

 phenomenon was only misunderstood in the laboratory, and not 

 in the field of sport. 



It is hardly necessary to assert that "pheasant disease" as 

 commonly seen in the rearing-fields is not fowl enteritis, as it is 

 so often said to be, because the foster-mothers are hardly ever 

 affected by any illness when their chicks are dying by hundreds 

 of the disease. The pheasant disease has never been subjected 

 to pathological examination and investigation. 



To start at the beginning would make it necessary to state 

 that the " muff 'cock," or the bigger woodcock, that comes in a 

 separate migration, is not the hen of the smaller birds, and that 

 distinction can only be made between the sexes by internal 

 examination of the organs. It might be necessary in similar 

 circumstances to say that woodcock and snipe do not live on 

 suction, as is often believed even now ; that nightjars and hedge- 

 hogs neither suck the milk of goats nor cows ; that foxes do 

 not prefer rats and beetles to partridges and pheasants; that 

 swallows do not hibernate at the bottom of ponds ; that badgers 

 do not prefer young roots to young rabbits ; that ptarmigan 

 and woodcock are not mute, and that the former do not live on 

 either stones or heather ; that badgers can run elsewhere than 

 along the sides of a hill, and that they are not compelled, by 

 having the legs on one side shorter than on the other, to always 

 take this curious course, which would involve them in the diffi- 

 culty of having to entirely encircle a hill before getting back to 

 their holes ; nevertheless, this faith is still held in some parts of 

 the country, just as it is said that the heather bleating of the 

 snipe is a vocal sound, whereas it is often made simultaneously 

 with the vocal sound. 



I have tried to avoid dealing with any such things as these, 

 which may be supposed to come within the region of common 

 knowledge of any beginner in shooting, but another point has 

 troubled me more. I have written a good deal for the press. 

 Articles of mine have appeared in The Times, The Morning- 

 Post, The Standard, The Daily Telegraph, The County Gentleman, 

 Bailey's Magazine, The Sporting and Dramatic, The Badminton 



