196 



SHOOTING. 



HARE SHOOTING. 



Hares remain in growing corn until the operation 

 of the sickle compels them to seek some other 



never perch again during the remainder of the night : but take 

 refuge among the grass, and underneath the hedges, where they fall 

 an easy prey to the cat, the fox, and the stoat. A poacher armed 

 with a gun finds a cloudy night fully as good for slaughter as one in 

 which the moon shines ; and, if larch trees grow in the wood, to 

 these he resorts ; knowing, by experience, that the pheasant prefers 

 this kind of tree to any other." * * * " Food and a quiet retreat 

 are the two best offers that man can make to the feathered race, to 

 induce them to take up their abode on his domain : and they are 

 absolutely necessary to the successful propagation of the pheasant. 

 This bird has a capacious stomach, and requires much nutriment ; 

 while its timidity soon causes it to abandon those places which are 

 disturbed. It is fond of acorns, beech mast, the berries of the 

 hawthorn, the seeds of the wild rose, and the tubers of the Jerusalem 

 artichoke. As long as these, and the corn dropped in the harvest, 

 can be procured, the pheasant will do very well. In the spring, it 

 finds abundance of nourishment in the sprouting leaves of young 

 clover ; but from the commencement of the new year, till the vernal 

 period, their wild food affords a very scanty supply ; and the bird 

 will be exposed to all the evils of the vagrant act, unless you can 

 contrive to keep it at home by an artificial supply of food. Boiled 

 potatoes (which the pheasant prefers much to those in a raw state) 

 and beans, are, perhaps, the two most nourishing things that can be 

 afforded in the depth of winter. Beans, in the end, are cheaper than 

 all the smaller kinds of grain ; because the little birds, which usually 



