COVERT-SHOOTING 271 



and going forty miles an hour, and most 

 guns will cheerfully endure a goodly 

 succession of that variety of hand-reared 

 fowl, without wanting anything better 

 than a steady continuance of the same. 



Pheasants at a well-conducted shoot 

 look anything but tame whenever the 

 guns are asked to have personal dealings 

 with them, and such nicety of judgment 

 in aim and allowance is required to make 

 a success of the meeting, that the truest 

 lover of the wild may well forget all else 

 in the marksman's joy of pitting the 

 qualities of his art against so worthy an 

 antagonist. 



But neglect the stage management of 

 the piece, flush the same birds within a 

 few yards of the gun, and send them 

 flustering in clouds round his head ; then 

 there is no pleasure in the performance, 

 the shooting becomes sheer butchery, and 

 the gun is only conscious of an undesired 

 necessity for action, enforced on him by 

 his position as guest, and usually attended 

 — except in the case of the very young, 



