i6o TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



unexpectedly one evening at the end of January. 

 It rained and blew horribly, and so I set out for 

 three clumps of trees on a hill, thinking that I 

 might come to terms with an old reprobate of a 

 cock pheasant who haunted the hill when he went 

 up to roost. However, while I was waiting to hear 

 him go up I saw some pigeons flying low against 

 the wind, to roost, as I supposed, in a large wood 

 beyond my boundary. I stood on the fringe of the 

 clump nearest which I hoped they might pass. 

 Would they come within shot ? I wondered. As 

 luck would have it, they tacked to gain the shelter 

 of that very clump. I shot two, and very soon saw 

 that I was in for something good. They came in 

 flocks of a dozen to twenty, and all tacked for my 

 clump. What a fine time I had for a few minutes ! 

 Sometimes I got one, occasionally two, and once 

 or twice none, which I did not know how to account 

 for. They were quite near enough, but gave 

 tricky shots, and the light, apart from the blurring 

 effect of the wind and rain, was not good. It was 

 necessary to be pretty quick to get in two barrels, 

 for being exposed to the full view of the pigeons, 

 directly I put up my gun the whole lot would swirl 

 sideways and sweep down wind. I got twenty-two, 

 seven of which my dog found on the way home. 

 I never saw or heard anything of the old cock 

 pheasant, with whom, in consideration of the luck 



