SUMMER SHOOTING. 103 



and flanks show boldly, while the lesser seems to slip 

 through the grass. By these signs, and by a kind of 

 instinct which grows upon one when always in the field, it 

 is possible to distinguish between them even in tall grass 

 and in the gloaming. 



This sort of shooting, if it does not afford the excite- 

 ment of the pheasant battue, or require the alertness 

 necessary in partridge killing, is not without its special 

 pleasures. These are chiefly to be attributed to the 

 genial warmth of the weather at that season, when the 

 reapers have only just begun to put the tall corn to the 

 edge of their crooked swords, and one can linger by the 

 hedge-side without dread of wintry chills. 



The aftermath in which the rabbits feed is not so tall 

 as the mowing grass, and more easy and pleasant to walk 

 through, though it is almost devoid of flowers. Neither 

 does it give so much shelter ; and you must walk close to 

 the hedge, gliding gently from bush to bush, the slower 

 the better. Rabbits feed several times during the day — 

 i.e. in the very early morning, next about eleven o'clock, 

 again at three or four, and again at six or seven. Not 

 that every rabbit comes out to nibble at those hours, but 

 about that time some will be seen moving outside the 

 buries. 



As you stroll beside the hedge, brushing the boughs, 

 a rabbit feeding two hundred yards away will lift his head 

 inquiringly from the grass. Then stop, and remain still 



