Sporting Notes in the Far East. 47 



CHAPTER VII. 



GAME. 



'EALLY good pheasant shooting in China, is now I believe 

 a thing of the past. Places that formerly used to be 

 " wick " with birds, are completely shot out ; and pheasants now 

 are generally flushed when least expected. However in Japan, it 

 is rather better ; as chiefly owing to the regulations against shoot- 

 ing at non " Treaty Ports " and also on account of the thick 

 impenetrable cover ; places may yet be visited, where, if they can 

 only be got at, birds are swarming ; and a proof of this I will 

 relate. We one day put into an unfrequented harbour on the South 

 coast of Japan, called Kada Bay, for shelter from an approaching 

 typhoon ; I landed, and in less than an hour, shot five brace of 

 pheasants within four hundred yards of the ship, besides seeing 

 many more which ran, and got up out of shot. 



Very little execution can be done anywhere without the help of 

 a dog ; and if unaccompanied by one, and birds take to squatting, 

 they 7t'/7/ not tret up unless almost trodden on, 



