SPORT AND SPORTSMEN ON THE FRENCH COAST. 273 



birds must die if they are to be counted as dead ; 

 together with a further boundary to keep the 

 populace some few hundreds of yards from the 

 shooters, making liberal, but not always un- 

 necessary, allowance for little divergences in 

 aim. There are here, let it be granted, some 

 few men who can knock pigeons down, and a 

 very few who can actually kill them, and who 

 shine at the least admirable of all British sports ; 

 but there is here, also, M. Petitsinge, the quasi- 

 sporting little Frenchman, an excellent specimen 

 of a type which has never yet been by any 

 means exhaustively treated. 



M. Petitsinge' s ambition is to be considered 

 un vrai sportmaiis, and he, with others who are 

 like unto him, are now in their element. He 

 has plenty of money, which his father made out 

 of a contract for brown-paper-soled boots for the 

 army, and the heir is making it fly. Petitsinge 

 has a share in several crocks that are running at 

 the different meetings along the Normandy 

 coast, and is the owner of three polo ponies that 

 may be seen at exercise on the road to Arques 

 or along the Plage. He does not ride them 

 himself, and has not the faintest intention of 

 doing anything so stupendously insane as play- 

 ing polo ; but the presence of the little animals 

 affords him an excuse for walking about the 



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