60 VARIETIES OF SHOOTING. 



several beaters, the number being proportioned to the extent 

 of the woods. When all is prepared that is about ten or 

 eleven o'clock the keepers and beaters together drive the 

 game towards the points where the guns are posted. The 

 positions of these will be shifted from time to time, and will 

 vary according to the nature of the covert which is being 

 beaten. Thus, if belts are to be driven, the plan is as 

 follows : At each corner of one end of the first portion of 

 the belt is stationed one gun, and its proprietor should be a 

 good shot, furnished with a breech loader or with a second 

 muzzle loader and a man to load it. Then outside the covert, 

 and walking close to the hedge on each flank of the beaters, 

 is another gun, making in all four, while a fifth may accom- 

 pany them inside, walking a little in advance of them. When 

 all is arranged, the beaters enter, and with or without a 

 steady dog or two, they walk steadily in line, tapping the 

 trees and uttering cries which are usually " Cock-cock," or 

 some similar words. These should be only loud enough to 

 enable each to keep the line by sound, for excessive noise 

 only drives the game away before the line come up. If a. 

 bird rises, the keeper, if he sees it, or a beater cries " Mark" 

 or " Ware hen," as the case may be, the latter being spared, 

 unless the covert is over-stocked with them. If a gun is dis- 

 charged, the whole line stop together till it is reloaded, when 

 they proceed as before. Towards the end of the beat, the 

 outside guns walk forward faster than the beaters, so as to 

 reach the corner in time for the onslaught which may be 

 expected, the pheasants here congregating till they are forced 

 to rise, and then getting up rapidly one after the other, so 

 as to occupy the attention of half-a-dozen men furnished with 

 breech loaders, if the covert is ordinarily well stocked. After 

 in this way beating out one portion of the belt, another is 

 entered upon and driven in the same way. In large woods 

 the beating is conducted on different principles. Here the 

 shooters are stationed in the rides or on the edges of the 

 springfalls, at such intervals as to command them without 

 much risk of shooting each other. The keepers and beaters 

 then drive the game towards these rides, and the hares and 

 rabbits are shot as they cross them, while the pheasants are 

 treated in the same way when they can be induced to rise; 



