PARTRIDGE SHOOTING. 211 



When the broad fields of oats and barley are cut, and the stacks 

 are standing over the ground, as it mostly is before the end of 

 August, the mystery of the coveys is at end ; the partridge must 

 fly, where before they only ran or cowered, and their where- 

 abouts, their number and their size is common knowledge to 

 everyone with eyes to see. 



For those who pursue the popular sport of partridge-shooting in 

 the simple, older fashion, with a brace of pointers and a retriever 

 at heel — and no new-fangled method can give better sport, though, 

 as I have said, it may give a better bag — there is no moment of 

 the day so full of a delightful expectancy as when the first turnip 

 or clover field is entered ; the dogs are " quartering" well ahead ; 

 we see by their eagerness that they are near game ; at any 

 moment the " point" may come ; then the sudden whirr of wings, 

 the seeming confusion, the four or five gun reports, the dropping 

 birds, and all the old, familiar incidents of the day — old and 

 familiar, but never stale. 



E e 2 



