235 



not stand to a dog after the first couple of days. Neither will 

 partridge lie close upon fields off which the corn has been shaved 

 within an inch of the roots, as is the case where reaping machines 

 are used. From such like places both grouse and partridge fly in 

 scores the moment a man or a dog appears within ten shots of them. 



Besides enabling men to shoot these places, driving, we all know, 

 has been most beneficial in its results of killing oft a greater number 

 of old birds than can be done by any other kind of shooting. Cripples 

 too are unknown, for the force of the fall alone kills the bird. 



In spite of all these advantages obtained from the drive, give me 

 the shooting which I have been accustomed to. Apart from my 

 liking to see dogs work, and exercising my own legs and sagacity 

 to find birds, perhaps the fact of my not being a very good shot 

 may induce me to prefer the easy to the diflicult work. 



I was never a reliable shot. One day I might shoot as well as 

 most men, and the next, perhaps, just as badly. Hitting birds without 

 killing them I always hated myself for, but instead of seeking fresh 

 shooting I searched for the wounded. To leave a crippled bird 

 a moment longer than necessary without putting it out of pain is most 

 inhuman ; whether search for it interferes with the shooting or not, 

 the bird should be caught and killed. 



It is horrible to see a heartless keeper holding by the legs two or 

 three wounded birds flapping their broken wings, before he gives them 

 the coup de grace. When this is given it is often in a most cruel manner 

 by crushing the back of the head with the thumb nail, or striking the 

 bird's head against something — both painful and oftentimes slow pro 

 cesses. The best, quickest, and easiest death to a bird is to place him 

 on his back on the doubled palms of the hands and press the breast- 

 bone firmly, but not suddenly, with both thumbs. A second or two's 

 pressure over the heart in this manner inflicts the easiest death a bird 

 can iDOSsibly sufi'er. 



As I said before, I had no experience of driving and little of battue 

 shooting, but I think it is not much fun and less sport to be put in a 

 hot corner at the end of a covert, or into a butt on the side of a moun- 

 tain, and there blaze away until a succession of guns get almost red hot 

 in your hands. The sport affords neither the exercise nor venatic skill 

 attendant upon hunting a mountain or lowland with a brace of good 

 dogs, where a man's knowledge of the haunts and habits of the birds 

 must be equal to his skill in working his dogs to enable him to bring 

 home a fair bag. 



I never cared to have coveys of partridge marked for me, unless 

 they were very scarce, and my time was limited ; and until fairly beaten 

 I seldom took advice from or accepted the guidance of keepers or 

 watchers. A bag of five to ten brace of grouse or partridge, killed 

 over a brace or two of good dogs (particularly if trained by myself), 

 after seven or eight hours' hard walking, and unaided by anyone except 

 my dogs, would give me infinitely more satisfaction than making the 

 "best record" of a big shoot behind sod embrasures, or from hot 



