44 



THE GAME BREEDER 



tion, present the most extraordinary 

 sight as they go streaming across the 

 open stubble, and the shooting is pretty 

 lively all along the line until the arrival 

 of the beaters into the open space, 

 when there is a brief halt to pick up 

 the birds. A few small boys follow each 

 gun, and it is their particular duty to 

 collect and carry what falls to the gun 

 of each shooter whom they follow. Un- 

 doubtedly, to judge from the zeal which 

 these urchins display in trying to claim 

 every bird which they can see, they 

 make small wagers amongst themselves 

 on the result of the pick-up, during the 

 day, that is credited to their respective 

 masters. Retrievers are not often used, 

 and consequently many runners are lost 

 in the high maize; but it would be hard 

 to prevent any dog from flushing scores 

 of birds if put on a running partridge 

 only a few yards in front of the line. 

 With the exception of one or two dogs 

 used by the head keepers behind the 

 line, retrievers are hardly at all in evi- 

 dence. 



If any of these vast fields are for- 

 tunate enough to possess one or more 

 fences, the usual mode adopted to walk 

 in line, driving the birds ahead, until a 

 fence is reached, when the guns halt, 

 and the beaters go round and drive back 

 the birds over the line of guns, thus 

 making a pleasant variation from the 

 continuous walking in line and shooting 

 straight in front. The season of 1902 



was considered a bad one at Tot-Megyer 

 on account of the heavy hailstorms, 

 which killed many young birds early in 

 the season. For this reason there were 

 no regular big days' shooting over the 

 estate, but only four short days. On 

 the first two days two guns bagged 260 

 brace of birds and on the 27th and 28th 

 of August a party of three guns, consist- 

 ing of Count L. Karolyi, Prince Z. Odes- 

 calehi, and the present writer, bagged 

 390 brace, the last day yielding 227 

 brace in less than five hours' shooting. 

 Had the number of guns been six or 

 seven, the bags would have been more 

 than doubled each day, as with such a 

 small party the coveys kept breaking on 

 the flanks of the line, and birds were 

 never scattered, nor the conveys broken 

 up. The last-named bag was made in 

 one field of less than 300 acres, and as 

 an example of what a larger party can 

 do, it may be mentioned that the bag 

 on the same ground in 1901, with a party 

 of ten guns, was 905 brace in the day. 

 This day is a record for Tot-Megyer. 

 In September. 1901, ten guns bagged 

 3,510 brace in five days' shooting, and 

 the bag for the season 1901 in ten days' 

 shooting, of which five days were in 

 September and five days were devoted 

 to hare driving in November, shows a 

 total of over 5,000 brace of birds — a 

 bag which could easily have been 

 doubled by a few more days' shooting 

 early in the season. 



HARE DRIVING IN HUNGARY. 



By Captain C. E. Radcliffe. 



In Hungary, on some estates, the 

 hares are so numerous that they are 

 positively a nuisance, especially early 

 in the season, when walking through 

 ithe maize! fields after partridges, for 

 then they keep rushing madly about 

 along the line of beaters and guns, and 

 in such numbers that the ground in 

 places seems alive with them. Here, 

 however, it is forbidden to shoot them 

 when out partridge shooting, since the 



great hare drives are reserved for the 

 month of November, when the land has 

 been cleared of crops. The Hungarian 

 hare is a larger animal than its English 

 neighbor, but differs in no respects as 

 regards its timidity and its frantic 

 rushes to break back through a line of 

 beaters and guns when hustled about on 

 strange ground. 



The general method of conducting one 

 of the great hare shoots in which Hun- 



