314 SHOOTING 



and five keepers or beaters, and take the fields in 

 line, of course driving in the direction of any pieces 

 of cole-seed, mustard, or roots that you may have 

 on your ground ; for when once tlie birds get into 

 these, particularly into cole-seed, they will remain 

 the rest of the day. It is surprising how many are 

 bagged when walking : sometimes the coveys seem 

 bothered by the line of men, and will rise within an 

 easy shot ; but they often seem to know by some 

 sort of intuition the bad shot of the party, and will 

 allow him to get fairly into the middle of them, 

 when they rise with a rush, and fly off none the 

 worse for his too hurried shots. 



In this sport there is not half the firing to be 

 heard which there is in " driving ; ' but the deadly 

 single shot or the steady double is heard pretty 

 regularly, and the bag at the end of the day is 

 usually heavier. You commonly find that a very 

 fair bag is made before entering the cole-seed or 

 roots where the coveys have principally gone ; but 

 when this cover is entered, unless very unlucky, you 

 may fairly reckon on the bag being doubled, for the 

 birds cannot run much, and are forced to rise fairly, 

 so that even a moderate shot ought to be pretty 

 sure of liis birds. One great advantage of this kind 

 of shooting is that so few birds get away wounded ; 

 as a rule they are either dropped at once or get off 



