388 SHOOTING. 



are drowned. The young birds have many enemies 

 besides the elements, such as cats, young dogs, 

 hawks, foxes, and vermin of different descriptions. 

 When the eggs are taken, or the young birds de- 

 stroyed soon after leaving the shell, there will be a 

 second hatch. Sportsmen often meet with second 

 hatches in September, when the old birds rise 

 screaming, and generally alight within fifty yards, 

 as if to induce the young birds to follow. In that 

 case the fair sportsman will not fire at the old 

 birds, but will call in his dogs and leave the 

 ground. At such times he should look well after 

 the young dogs, as, when they see the birds run- 

 ning, they are apt to snap up such of them as 

 cannot get out of the way. The very young birds 

 are called cheepers, from their uttering a scream 

 as they rise. Full grown birds never scream as 

 they rise, except when the young ones are helpless, 

 nor do young birds after they are large enough for 

 the table. 



There are shooters who acquire an unsportsman- 

 like habit of firing at a covey immediately as it 

 rises, before the birds are fairly on the wing, and, 

 thus without aiming at any individual bird, bring 

 down two or three. And sometimes they will 

 make a foul shot by flanking a covey ; the birds 

 being on the wing, come upon them suddenly, and 

 make a simultaneous wheel; they take them on 

 the turn, when, for a moment and but for a 

 moment half the covey are in a line, and floor 

 them rank and file. These are tricks allied to 

 poaching, and almost as reprehensible as shooting 



