OH. in.] HUNTING-SHOOTING. 49 



81. Wild spaniels, though they may show you most 

 cock, will get you fewest shots, unless you have well- 

 placed markers. There are sportsmen who like to take 

 out one steady dog to range close to them, and a couple 

 of wild ones to hunt on the flanks, one on each side, 

 expressly that the latter may put up birds for the 

 markers to take note of. 



82. Mr. n, who is devoted to shooting, acts upon this system, 



but upon a more enlarged scale. Having previously posted his 

 markers, he has each cover, immediately before he shoots it, well 

 hunted by the wildest of the dogs : he then takes a steady animal 

 to the several spots pointed out, and is thus enabled to kill annually 

 thrice as many cock as any other man in the country. The aptness 

 of this bird, when a second time flushed, to return (397) to its old 

 haunt, and when again put up to take wing in the direction of its 

 first flight, much tends to its destruction. 



83. An old sportsman knows mute spaniels to be 

 most killing ; a young one may prefer those which 

 give tongue, (if true from the beginning owning nothing 

 but game,) because, though undeniably greater disturbers 

 of a cover, they are more cheerful and animating. The 

 superiority of the former is, however, apparent on a 

 still calm day, when the least noise will make the game 

 steal away long before the gun gets within shot. But it 

 is not so in all countries. 



84. Wild as is the woodcock with us after it has recovered from 

 its fatiguing migratory flight, and been a few times disturbed, there 

 is not, perhaps, naturally, so tame a game-bird, and one more 

 difficult to flush in close cover where rarely alarmed. Officers 

 quartered at Corfu frequently cross in the morning to the Albanian 

 coast, a two hours' sail or pull, and return the same evening, 

 having bagged from fifty to sixty couples to half-a-dozen good guns. 

 Their boat is directed to meet them at some head-land, towards 

 which they shoot. An attendant to carry the game, and a relay of 

 ammunition, &c., is told off to each sportsman, and he of the party 



' who best knows the country, is chosen captain for the day, and 

 walks in the centre of the line, the rest conforming to his move- 

 ments. There is generally an agreement to halt for a minute, but 

 not a second more, to allow a man to look for any cock he may have 

 knocked over ; therefore the possessor of a first-rate retriever is an 



E 



