PHEASANTS: IN WAR 131 



all to compromise the matter, provided the field in 

 which the guns must stand slopes away from the 

 wood, is to put the guns right back under the 

 opposite wood. Then the birds, when they peep 

 outside, probably are unable to see the guns, and 

 come forward. By the time when they catch sight 

 of the guns they are so well under way, and so 

 near the second wood, that they continue onwards, 

 merely rising higher and higher the very thing 

 required of them. 



Fog is not pleasant at any time, but it is a 

 nuisance on shooting-days unless your object is 

 wood-pigeons. Partridge -driving in a thick fog 

 is not only too dangerous, but impossible ; while 

 anything beyond a veil of fog takes all the polish 

 off a day's covert-shooting. Yet there are circum- 

 stances connected with pheasant-shooting in which 

 a moderate density of fog will permit sporting 

 shooting probably quite out of the question in 

 clear weather. Suppose one has been beating a 

 big covert all day, in clear weather, towards the 

 final corner as a rule, it is almost useless to try 

 to force birds from their home across the open at 

 any time of the day. Much more so is it useless 

 to try late in the day, when the birds are thinking 

 about going to roost. So the last corner, crowded 

 with birds, has to be brought back over a ride. 

 Now is the time when a fog of fair density comes 

 to the rescue. Instead of making your last corner 



92 



