310 SHOOTING 



reports, and a brace of birds tumbling ; the empty 

 piece handed to the loader, and the other gun taken 

 and discharged in the same cool way with the 

 like unfailing result. Both master and man are 

 perfect specimens of their kind, the former as a 

 shot and the latter as a loader. And now, as the 

 drivers get further through the roots, the hares 

 begin to bolt out, running wildly in every direction, 

 utterly bewildered at the shouts and yells that 

 greet them. Not many are shot at except by those 

 who have utterly muffed the birds, and are anxious 

 to show that they can hit something. Next, as the 

 drivers come out on to the stubble, the French 

 birds begin to get up by ones and twos. Many of 

 these get off, for they rise from such queer places, 

 often close to the stands. 



The first drive being over, the head-keeper comes 

 up to see the game collected, pausing by the stands 

 of those who have been unlucky, and gravely telling 

 their loaders that they " need not trouble to pick 

 up their master's birds," as he always sees to that ; 

 whereupon very frequently the occupier tries to 

 explain how the birds twisted or the sun was in 

 his eyes, or makes one of the thousand excuses 

 that men give for missing. The game being now 

 collected, the party stroll off to tlie next set of 

 stands, and the same thing goes on again, with the 



