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When we read in Mr. Tegetmeier's excellent book on pheasants that 

 *' one pheasant had in its crop 726 wire worms and another 440 grubs 

 of the crane fly,"' it is easy to understand that where pheasants are 

 numerous insects destructive to crops are scarce. 



That big bags are still made is in strong evidence, for in December, 

 1892, we find recorded in the Field that at Sudbourne Hall, Suffolk, 

 in three days with eight guns were shot : 3,567 pheasants, 103 par- 

 tridges, 464 hares, 473 rabbits, 37 woodcock, and 19 various— total 

 4,663 head, that is an average daily bag of 1,555 head, with 1 94 to 

 each gun. 



In the same month at Bishop's Wood, Herefordshire, in two days 

 with seven guns were bagged : 2,725 pheasants and 81 other head — 

 total 2,806, or an average of 1,403 a day and 200 to each gun. 



A pleasing record is also given in that paper, where it states 

 at Trewern, Oswestry, a country foxes are preserved in, five guns in 

 November, 1892, in one day, and within an area of 35 acres of coverts, 

 shot 353 head, consisting of 328 pheasants, 4 partridges, 9 hares, 9 

 rabbits, 1 woodcock, and 2 various — an instance among hundreds which 

 shows that pheasants and foxes can be preserved in the same coverts. 

 A wonderful shot at wildfowl is reported to have been made in 

 Scotland during the hard weather of Christmas, 1892. Sir Charles 

 Ross's puntsman seeing a great congregation of birds on the ice, got 

 within sixty yards of them and then fired; killing in the one shot 147 

 birds cf different sorts, principally plover ; the charge used was 4ozs. 

 powder and 14ozs. No. 3 shot. 



A gentleman of my acquaintance, who does not wish his name men- 

 tioned, and a friend of his, towards the close of 1892, shot in the High- 

 lands in five days' stalking and driving twenty-two hinds. This is, I 

 think, the best record of such shooting. 



As a specimen of what can be done with a gun by crack shots, two 

 marvellous incidents may be given. The sportsmen on both occasions 

 were the same, and notably the two best marksmen in England. 

 Both (noblemen whose names I know, but am debarred from men- 

 tioning them also) were standing side by side at the end of a cover 

 expecting pheasants, instead of which a covey of eight partridge swept 

 overhead, and, seeing the shooters, scattered in all directions, Each 

 man got four shots, and with them brought down singly the eight 

 birds, which were picked up on the spot ! Another daj^, shooting 

 pheasants at Studley in Yorkshire, the birds crossing high over their 

 heads at tremendous pace, these sportsmen by agreement took alter- 

 nate birds, and to their right or left as they chanced to come. They 

 killed and picked up 98 pheasants, shooting bird for bird between 

 them, and missing only one shot apiece ! 



The late Mr. David Beatty of Borodale, who was for over forty years 

 master of the Wexford Foxhounds, was a wonderfully good shot. 

 In about the year 1846 or 1847 he backed himself to shoot thirty snipe 

 with thirty charges of shot. The shot was carefully measured, and 

 the shooting began. He killed every bird up to nearly the end, when 



