PHEASANTS FROM SHELL TO SHOT 347 



Finally, the birds which are to be turned out should be 

 fed for a long period after they have left the hen, for 

 they are not so capable of providing for themselves as their 

 wilder brethren, yet they will by degrees take to the roving life 

 free and unhampered by human yoke, until the eventful day 

 of the year arrives when, let us hope, they will only succumb 

 to a shot worthy of the endless trouble and anxiety they have 

 given to him who has watched and tended them from their 

 earliest youth upwards. 



Thus did Balls ramble on unceasingly whilst we nodded 

 our acquiescence and made mental notes of what was new to 

 us. 



A casual remark upon the oft-arising controversy in lead- 

 ing sporting journals regarding battue versus the old 

 fashioned style of shooting, caused the veteran keeper's eyes 

 to twinkle, and he raised himself on his elbow for a fresh out- 

 burst of sporting lore. 



PHEASANT SHOOTING. 



Some there are who condemn pheasant shooting as 

 slaughter, others positively affirm that there can be no sport 

 in it. 



" Who couldn't hit a bird as big as a diminutive haystack 

 and as tame as the common garden hen? They are reared like 

 chickens, coming at your beck or whistle, and the day before 

 the shoot turned off in the woods. Even then they have to 

 be probed with sticks before they will rise, and when they do 

 get up they offer the easiest of shots." 



Now, this is all very well to state, but how many places 

 are there in the United Kingdom where such cowardly and 

 unsportsmanlike proceedings take place. 



Not one ! Persons who make such statements, are 

 piteously ignorant of the details, and unduly prejudiced 

 Pheasant shooting, when properly conducted, is veritable 

 sport ; indeed, it is the sport of princes. 



Where is the man who, having enjoyed a well-organised 



