100 CHAPTER XV. 



and I had fired twenty shells. It was a plain case of "here they come 

 and there they go !" 



When the birds got to me they had been upon the wing any distance 

 from two hundred to a thousand yards and they were not wildly beat- 

 ing the air the while remaining almost stationary as they do when 

 freshly flushed. They were moving at a high rate of speed and their 

 dodgings and their turnings added to the handicap placed upon one 

 by being close to a hedge or some other object obstructing the view 

 close to the front, made shooting them good sport and hard. 



Later on in the day in various drives the original impression borne 

 in upon me was strengthened and intensified until I came to know from 

 my own experience that it was at least fifty per cent more difficult 

 for me to shoot driven partridges than to kill the same bird walked 

 up in the ordinary fashion. 



It is true the Englishmen do get great bags. On the other hand, they 

 are not shooting wild game. The birds which fall to their guns are 

 their own, nursed and tended and carefully raised. These men are 

 willing to pay and do pay startling sums for good shooting. Scarcely 

 a bird, I have been told on many occasions, costs the owner less than 

 a pound. 



Five dollars a bird. Very often the cost is less, but the men who 

 own these shootings and get their sport in firing at birds upon them, 

 increase the number of birds that they may have something to shoot. 

 They do not take away from other sportsmen upon unpreserved 

 ground any of their rights, and in fact the game which escapes from 

 preserves helps to people the free ground. 



One might have some quarrel with Englishmen for shooting so 

 many birds in a day, but I suspect the apparent cause for such criticism 

 as might lie, would quickly disappear if one were to meet the con- 

 ditions on the ground. 



I am quite sure that I did not find Englishmen or Scotchmen or 

 Irishmen less inclined to be fair about shooting than my American 

 brothers. In fact, I have seen much more game hoggishness exhibited 

 in America than I saw in England or Scotland. 



During some of the drives of partridges, hare and rabbits were much 

 in evidence. We shot these when we could. 



