48 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



A successful battue requires no little fijiesse and 

 patience exercised beforehand ; weeks are spent in prepar- 

 ing for the amusement of a few hours. The pheasants are 

 sometimes accustomed to leave the wood in a certain 

 direction chosen as specially favourable for the sport — 

 some copses at a little distance are used as feeding-places, 

 so that the birds naturally work that way. Much care is 

 necessary to keep a good head of game together, not too 

 much scattered about on the day fixed upon. The diffi- 

 culty is to prevent them from wandering off in the early 

 morning ; and men are stationed like sentinels at the usual 

 points of egress to drive them back. The beaters are 

 usually men who have previously been employed in the 

 woods and possess local knowledge of the ground, and are in- 

 structed in their duties long before : nothing must be left 

 to the spur of the moment. Something of the skill of the 

 general is wanted to organise a great battue : an instinct- 

 ive insight into the best places to plant the guns, while the 

 whole body of sportsmen, beaters, keepers with ammuni- 

 tion, should move in concert. 



The gamekeeper finds his work fall upon him harder 

 now than it used to do : first, sportsmen look for a heavier 

 return of killed and wounded ; next, they are seldom 

 willing to take much personal trouble to find the game, but 

 like it in a manner brought to them ; and, lastly, he thinks 

 the shooting season has grown shorter. Gentlemen used 

 to reside at home the greater part of the winter, and spread 



