UPLAND SHOOTING. 
173 
/On the first of July I went with a friend, a good shot and ea¬ 
ger sportsman, to a favorite shooting ground, in Orange county, 
N. Y., on a part of which—for it had a very large range, and 
contained many varieties of lying—we had bagged on the pre¬ 
vious year a hundred and twenty-five birds in a single day’s 
shooting. 
We shot the first day on the low meadows, and killed hardly 
any birds ; not, to the best of my recollection, above ten or a 
dozen, in a severe day’s walking. They were well grown birds, 
but not a single old one in the number. My companion, greatly 
annoyed, insisted that the ground had been hunted before that 
season, and all the birds killed off, except the handful that we had 
found. From this conclusion I dissented, arguing that if such 
had been the case, we should have found old birds, the young 
being the easier both to find and to kill, especially for cockney 
sportsmen, who alone may be presumed to hunt before, that sea¬ 
son. My friend grew almost angry, and asked me, “ Where, 
then, are the birds V’ I answered, “ Wait till to-morrow even¬ 
ing, when we shall have beat our other ground, and I will tell 
you.” 
The next day we did beat the other ground ; wet swales, and 
sloping woods of small extent in valleys watered by little stream¬ 
lets from the hills. The result was the same, a wretched day’s 
sport, and no old birds, or at least hardly any. 
As usual, each held his own position ; my friend again asked, 
« How do you account fof this 1” I replied, “ All the young 
broods have been destroyed by the freshet, except the very few 
which got off before the May flood. This accounts for the few¬ 
ness of the birds, and for the uncommon size of those few. The 
old birds are now hatching their second broods on the ridges and 
hill sides. I will show you that I am right, to-morrow.” And 
to-morrow I did show him that the ridges and sapling coverts— 
sprouts, as the country people call them—were full of old birds, 
hovering , and no young ones. 
Still my companion was incredulous as to the second broods, 
until in the afternoon, as I was passing through a little clump of 
