398 SHOOTING. 



in which there is plenty of fern, gorse, rushes, or 

 brambles, in December, and fallows and marshy 

 fields in January. 



Leveret shooting often commences with grouse 

 shooting, on the 12th of August, though it is not 

 uncommon, nor is it considered unfair, to kill 

 them during the summer months. Hares are not 

 in season until September. The shooter should 

 desist from killing them in February, but he is not 

 prevented from killing them at any season, by any 

 legislative enactment, if he have taken out a game 

 certificate. It is the prescriptive law of the chase, 

 held sacred by sportsmen, that prevents him. 



The shooter should fire well forward at a hare, 

 and not too high. He should not fire at a long 

 distance, as the probability of his wounding her 

 would be greater than that of killing her. If run- 

 ning direct from him, a hare should not be fired at, 

 unless within twenty-five paces from the gun, or 

 she w T ill often run off, though severely wounded in 

 the hind-quarters. A beater will render essential 

 service to the shooter in quest of hares, in the early 

 part of the season ; the beater walks on the con- 

 trary side of the hedge to the shooter, and a few 

 yards in advance, so that the hare, to avoid the 

 former, jumps out on the side of the latter. When 

 beating hedges in the vicinity of covers, the shooter 

 should take care to place himself on that side 

 nearest the covers. When shooting at the edge of 

 a cover, if the hare fired at is not quite deprived 

 of the use of her legs, it would be advisable to fire 

 again immediately, for should she crawl through 



