62 VARIETIES OF SHOOTING. 



between the dogs and their master, and none except deer- 

 stalking is more trying to the wind and muscles. If carried 

 on sleepily and unscientifically, few shots will be obtained 

 during the day, so that it is scarcely to be wondered at that 

 it is abandoned by those gentlemen who only occasionally 

 indulge in rural amusements. 



HEDGEROW PHEASANT SHOOTING 



Early in the season, pheasants may often be found in the 

 hedgerows near the coverts, especially if these are hunted in 

 the morning, about eight or nine o'clock, when the birds are 

 returning from their feed. The spaniels should be made to 

 hunt them/rom the covert, or the birds will run before them 

 into their secure retreats, and refuse to rise. If the hedge is 

 a high one, a shooter should be on each side, or if there is 

 only one gun, he should be on the ditch side. Pheasants also 

 are fond of small ash-beds and other coverts of trifling 

 extent, where they remain quiet until they are driven into 

 the more secure preserves by the keepers. In such places 

 they are often to be killed in the first days of October, at 

 a time when the larger coverts are too full of leaf to admit 

 of their being beaten. 



COCK SHOOTING. 



The WOODCOCK (Scolopax rusticola) presents one of the 

 most difficult shots which can fall to the lot of the British 

 sportsman. This arises partly from the nature of the thick 

 coverts which he frequents, and partly from the quick shoots 

 which he makes round the trees as he rises from the ground. 

 This bird occasionally breeds in Great Britain, but the bulk 

 of those found in the winter here have migrated from the 

 north of Europe, arriving in flights early in October, and 

 leaving us in March. Mr. Campbell, of Kilberry, who is 

 one of the most successful cock shooters of the day, is of 

 opinion that within the last ten years they leave Scotland 

 earlier than formerly, and he has known them during that 

 period pair in the middle of February. Mr. Selby, who made 

 his observations in Northumberland, observes " that the first 

 flights of these birds, which seldom remain longer than for a 



