46 VARIETIES OF SHOOTING. 



on the ground, will be perceived. Now, having noted the 

 exact spot, reload, and retrieve the birds killed ; and then, 

 unless the distance is enormous, or the covey is out of your 

 beat, proceed at once to look for them, and in doing so, take 

 care to beat the ground, where you expect to find them, in 

 such a direction as to keep them on your own manor. As 

 they rise, serve them as before, and follow them up as long 

 as possible before proceeding to look for another covey. Of 

 course, if there is time, the second barrel will be used in each 

 case. Unless birds are very plentiful, this is found to be by 

 far the best plan; but where they are thickly preserved, it 

 often happens that in going from one field to another fresh 

 coveys will be found, and these will then naturally be shot 

 at. Should the birds be very wild, send the dogs up the 

 hedge-side and make them beat towards you; by which 

 method shots may often be procured which would otherwise 

 be impracticable. In searching for fresh coveys, the most 

 likely ground will depend upon the time of the day and the 

 season of the year. In the early part of the season birds are ] 

 on the feed till eleven o'clock, after which, in hot weather, 

 they resort to brook-sides, potatoes, turnips, and similarly 

 shaded spots till about three o'clock, when they return to 

 the feeding ground again, and remain there till dusk, at which 

 hour they may be found " calling," preparatory to their night's 

 "jug." Later in the year they frequent fallows, if undis- 

 turbed, in the middle of the day, and are also likely to be 

 met with on dry banks, especially where there is a bare sandy 

 spot for them to dust themselves and bask in the sun. When 

 very wild, so as to rise out of all chance of a shot, it is found 

 that by flying a kite over the ground when they are on the 

 feed, they will lie close, probably mistaking it for a hawk. 

 At these times the great object is to scatter the covey, as 

 single birds always lie comparatively well. Hence it is that 

 the kite is so successful; for when the birds do rise, they fly 

 off in all directions, and may then be picked up in detail, 

 lying like stones. 



The modern fashionable mode of partridge shooting is quite 

 a different kind of proceeding to that above described. Here 

 the stubbles are not entered by the sportsmen, who wait till 

 the birds are off their feed before commencing their opera- 



