PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 



CHAPTER XX. 



SEPTEMBER. 



283 



The 1st of September— Partridge Shooting — Migratory Birds— 

 Grouse-shooting in September — Widgeon — Jack Snipes ; 

 Breeding places of— Landrail — White variety of the Eagle- 

 Sea Trout-fisher— Stag's Horns — Deer-stalking — Cunning 

 of Deer — Disappointed in getting a Shot. 



The 1st of September is by no means so marked a 

 day with sportsmen in the north as it is with those 

 in the southern parts of the kingdom. I well re- 

 member the eager haste with which, when a boy, 

 I used to sally forth at the earliest dawn to wage 

 war on the partridges. The birds, however, at that 

 horn-, are restless and on the alert, the ground is 

 wet, and the sport unsatisfactory ; and in fact no 

 one, I believe, who can number more than sixteen 

 summers ever got up at three o'clock to shoot 

 partridges without repenting his undue activity 

 before mid-day. 



In this country very little of the corn is cut at 

 the commencement of September, and I never 

 attempt to shoot more partridges than I may happen 

 to want for the larder. As long as the fields are 

 covered with standing corn, the only way is to hunt 



