CO VER T-SJIOO TING . 123 



SO to speak, generalship of the organiser or manager, 

 be he proprietor or keeper ; and, indeed, many of the 

 quahties of a good general are requisite for the due 

 carrying out of a successful battue. One plan of 

 operation must be decided on and adhered to. No 

 detail must be neglected : one " stop " forgotten, or 

 one gun misplaced, will sometimes entirely spoil the 

 day's proceedings. Besides, there are two kinds of 

 hosts — the one who knows his business, limits the 

 number of his guns according to the capacities of his 

 coverts, and selects these guests with care, wishing to 

 give them an enjoyable day's shooting, and also to 

 have his game properly killed. The other, who is not 

 a sportsman, asks twice as many guns as his coverts 

 will hold, and asks them indiscriminately — "doing the 

 civil" all round, without regard to their shooting 

 qualifications — with the result of spoiling what might 

 have been a good day's sport, a great deal of game 

 wounded and lost, some of it so " plastered" as to be 

 useless, and perhaps one of the party returning home 

 minus an eye. And, indeed, at such an incongruous 



