126 SPORT, 



should be allowed to go till he has passed an examina- 

 tion — not competitive, but which should exclude all 

 who fail to reach a certain standard, or until he can 

 hit a mechanical rabbit or " running hare " in the head 

 and shoulders, instead of the tail and hind legs. 



In such a party, too, will probably be found the 

 ** plasterer," who prides himself on quick shooting, and 

 in cutting down the birds before they get well on the 

 wing — a valuable accomplishment when walking after 

 wild partridges in the open, but most objectionable 

 when applied to the pheasant, whether in or outside a 

 covert. The plasterer, whose plastering often arises 

 from jealousy, will plaster — i.e. blow the pheasant into 

 a pulp — the moment he rises above the trees of a low 

 larch plantation, when walking in line with the beaters, 

 rather than let the forward guns, for whose safety he 

 shows small rerard, have the fine rocketer which 

 the same pheasant would have become by the time he 

 reached them had his life been then spared. It should 

 be a fixed rule in covert-shooting that the guns inside 

 should only shoot at ground game, and at such 



