PABTKIDGE SHOOTING. 69 



a good crop of game, would do well to remember the 

 old catch 



" 'T was on the morn of Valentine 

 The birds began to mate." 



If you feel satisfied your ground will not be 

 beaten before you reach it, nine o'clock is quite soon 

 enough to take the field in September. At that hour 

 the coveys, which are not in the standing corn, will be 

 met with in the stubbles, the cover of old high grass, in 

 the fallows and potato fields ; as yet, they do not fre- 

 quent turnips. When you have put up a covey, you 

 may make sure it will settle in the standing corn. 

 To turn your sport to the best account, have markers 

 so placed as to ascertain where they alight. When 

 disturbed they are not likely, at this early period of 

 the season, to fly far ; but if shot at they will drop, 

 often close to you, and lie as if they were dead, from 

 the effect of terror. Birds which thus drop and 

 cower, are very difficult to find, with the best nosed 

 dogs ; your markers here will do you good service. 



If not supplied with markers, after having flushed 

 your birds, beat for them as closely as if you were 

 looking for a needle in a barrel of hay. Indeed, it 

 ought to be the shooter's axiom, that a bird which he 

 has seen is worth a score that he hopes to see. Be- 

 sides, nothing tends to make dogs more industrious 

 and confiding the latter a great point than mak- 

 ing them work on a spot where you are certain they 

 will find, and where they do find. In such cases, 

 too, the odds are, you kill your bird or birds, and your 



