BEATING FOB GAME. 27" 



and late in afternoons, you will find them reading : then, 

 if your spaniels are good, not hanging on the haunt, 

 babbling, and plodding, but quick in taking the "road," 

 and knowing the toe from the heel, you will be able to 

 get shots at them before they reach the high slope. 



Partridges you will find in turnips, stubbles, rough 

 grounds, shady places, clovers, grass, and particularly 

 in fresh broken-up woodlands, where there are plenty 

 of ants' eggs : these are famous breeding grounds. In 

 the pairing season, which is called their wooing time, 

 (the proper season for training young dogs,) you will 

 find them chiefly in fallows and turnips that are left 

 until April : it is then time to leave off, as they are at 

 nest or nesting. In the season, when they become wild, 

 use babbling spaniels round the fences near turnips, 

 which will cause them to run and lose each other : they 

 will then lie close, and enable you to pick them up singly. 

 You will often see a whole covey take wing, and fly 

 straight ahead two or three fields. Many sportsmen 

 will pursue and beat very close for them, which is gene- 

 rally in vain, as they often take a circuitous route, and 

 return scudding under the hedges ; therefore, if you are 

 inclined to find them, return, and beat the grounds from 

 whence you drove them first. Much fagging might be 

 saved gentlemen, by the keeper's going forward and 

 beating the bare grounds with a racing terrier, that has 

 plenty of tongue. This mode will bring the birds into 

 less compass. 



Hares you will find in the standing corn, which they 







