SHOOTING. 



place, humble in character, has been the immemorial 

 resort of sportsmen in August, although, during 

 the rest of the year, sometimes many months elapse 

 ere a customer, save some itinerant salesman calling 

 for his mug of beer, " darkens the door." There he 

 will find all the keepers, and poachers, and young 

 men from the country round assembled, amounting 

 in the whole to not more than some eight or ten 

 persons, each anxious to display his knowledge of 

 the number and localities of the broods, but each 

 differing, wide as the poles asunder, in his state- 

 ment, except on four points, on which all agree, 

 viz. that the hatching season has been finer than 

 was ever known before ! that the broods are larger 

 and more numerous than were ever counted before ! 

 that the birds are heavier and stronger than were 

 ever seen before ! and that they will, on the fol- 

 lowing day, lie better, and afford more sport than 

 they ever did on any opening day before ! Each 

 successive season being, in their idea, more propi- 

 tious than its precursor ! 



Many are the topics discussed, and not the least 

 interesting is the question, at what time shall we 

 commence operations in the morning ? When the 

 guns are expected to be numerous, it is decided to 

 be on the ground as soon as it is light enough to 

 commence operations in a fair way. Birds may be 

 killed above the horizon long before sun-rise, but 

 the sportsman's rule is never to fire until the morn- 

 ing is so far advanced that he can plainly distin- 

 guish them in their flight against the dark hill- side. 

 They arrange to breakfast at three, (calculating 



