PHEASANT SHOOTING. 287 



tion of the various sportsmen. In wet weather 

 pheasants are very reluctant to rise on the wing, 

 and will run long distances, particularly old cock 

 birds. The best time for shooting them is (while 

 the coverts are thick, and before the fall of the 

 leaf) in the afternoon, when they draw wing out of 

 the woods to the neighbouring stubble fields or 

 turnips ; a man with a steady old pointer will 

 obtain more shots at this time of day in an hour, 

 than he would by beating the coverts half the day 

 with a lot of noisy spaniels, which always do more 

 harm than good. 



In large preserves (which are out of the question 

 with the general shooter, appertaining exclusively 

 to the battue system) beaters are generally used 

 with retrievers only, to pick up the wounded game. 

 In shooting as well as in hunting, noise is destruc- 

 tive of sport, and a lot of yelping curs will drive 

 game all over the country. The clumber spaniel, 

 which is silent, and beats within a short distance 

 of his master, is the only dog of the spaniel kind 

 which should be used in covert shooting ; but in 

 short underwood, setters or pointers, taught to 

 break their point as the game moves, are the best 

 auxiliaries to fill the bag. After all, there is little 

 good covert shooting until the leaves fall, and if 

 pheasants were spared a month longer, until full- 



