182 SHOOTING THE PARTRIDGE 
can have is to show that you have made the most 
of your opportunities without interfering with your~ 
neighbours. 
Some mention must be made, in a work of this 
kind, of the method of shooting partridges with the 
aid of an artificial kite. I cannot say much in favour 
of it, although I think that the objection most fre- 
quently urged against it—viz. that it drives birds off 
your ground—does not, except on very small properties 
or shootings, carry much weight. But as we are now 
discussing the small and unpretentious manor with our 
friend B., who is the most likely person to make 
use of it, I would venture to point out one or two 
other things. 
That it gives very poor, poking shots, and is . 
strictly pot-hunting class of sport, nobody can deny ; 
but the excuse generally pleaded for it, that when 
cover is scarce and an organised drive may be, from 
lack of men or means, impracticable, birds cannot be 
got at any other way, is, to my thinking, inadmissible. 
There is no prettier art than driving partridges to 
one or two guns, with only three or four drivers 3 and 
any one who has experienced the pride one feels in 
taking home fifteen brace of birds secured in this way 
on ground circumscribed in area and not too plenti- 
fully stocked, will agree with me that this is the way 
