VICTIMS OF WIRE 253 



one windy day, happened to be stationed by himself 

 on a road lined by telegraph-wires. All the birds 

 came his way, and with ten shots he killed one. 

 Startled by his volleys, a bunch of passing birds 

 blundered into the telegraph-wires which, more deadly 

 than the gun, claimed nine victims. The colonel 

 was a study in modesty when he remarked a little 

 later that in ten shots he had been lucky enough to 

 bag five brace. 



Unfortunately the best stands for partridge-driving 

 are often behind hedges flanked by telegraph-wires. 



This is specially unfortunate when the birds 

 Victims se e the guns just before they pass beneath 

 Wire ^e w i res - Up they go, and a whole covey 



may be cut to pieces at the moment when 

 fingers were pulling triggers. Though a brace of 

 birds fall dead at the sportman's feet, evidently 

 neatly taken in front, to the sportsman this is not the 

 same as a brace to his gun : he would prefer, indeed, 

 a good old-fashioned miss. 



* * * 



Many country people who ought to know better are 



hazy on the distinction between stoats and weasels. 



We can forgive the Cockney uncertainty of 



Weasel*? *^ s sort ' as we ^ or * ve ^ m ^ or calling 

 rooks, and even starlings, crows. The 



countryman may well confuse crows and rooks ; his 



