RSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LI RSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LI IE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORKU LIBRARY OF HE UltlVERSITY 1 CHIFi <5V HE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORN NOTES ON GAME & GAME SHOOTING. MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS AND ANIMALS, AND ON THE SPORT THEY AFFORD FOR THE GUN IN GREAT BRITAIN. ILLUSTRATED. BY J. J.jMANLEY, M.A., AUTHOR OF " NOTES" ON FISH AND FISHING/' ETC. LONDON: THE BAZAAR" OFFICE, 170, STRAND, W.C. LONDON : PRINTED BY ALFRED BRADLEY, 170, STRAND, W.C. OK PREFACE. THESE Notes, good reader or, as I should prefer to address you, brother sportsman were, in substance, contributed from time to time to the columns of the Country ; and are now, with some additions and cor- rections, presented in book form. They do not aspire to be considered as a complete natural history of the objects of the home sportsman's pursuit, nor as an exhaustive treatise on the science and practice of shooting. The small size of the volume precludes such an ambitious idea. They hardly aspire to be more than miscellaneous notes and jottings, the results, mainly, of my own experience and observation ; and if sportsmen generally, young and old especially the former take any pleasure in their perusal, one object, at least, of their publication will be attained. But though the volume is of a somewhat discursive character, each chapter is written on a more or less iv Preface. definite plan, the nomenclature, the natural history, the method of pursuit, and the gastronomic merits of each bird and beast of sport being discussed in order. Some apology, perhaps, may be expected for the omission of Notes on Wild Fowl and Fowling, with the exception of those on Snipe. I can only say that the subject is far too wide an one to be dealt with in a volume of the present dimensions. It would really require a large volume to itself. The introduction of Rooks, &c., may seem out of place ; but I will hope that to some readers it may be interesting. But whatever be adjudged the merits or otherwise of the letter-press for which I am responsible, I feel sure that all who take these Notes in hand will be pleased with the admirable Illustrations provided by Mr. James Temple. J. J. M. August, 1880. CONTENTS. Page. GROUSE. The Game . Months Etymology .of "Tetrao" Derivation of the word " Grouse " The Grouse Family Haunts of Grouse The Capercaillie Its Plumage Its Wooing The Capercaillie in Scotland Capercaillie Shooting Black Grouse The Blackcock and Greyhen The Mating of Blackcock Shooting of Black- game Their Flight Distribution Disease and Hybrids The Ptarmigan Its Habitat Ptarmigan Shooting Plumage The Red Grouse Is a Native Bird Southern Limits of its Range Attempts to Acclimatise further south Plumage Variation in Size and Colour Food Red Grouse Shooting Hints to Grouse Shooters Gastronomic I 5 PARTRIDGES. The First of September Partridge Season of '1879 Natural History of the Partridge The word Perdix Pairing Haunts Indige- nous Nesting Protection of her Brood by the Partridge Attempts to Tame Partridges Domesticated Partridges The "French" or "Guernsey" Partridge Netting Partridges in Olden Times Modern Means of Partridge Shooting Partridge Shooting as a Sport The Objections to Game Preserving Advantages of Partridge Shooting Dress Advice to Partridge Shooters The Sportsman's Luncheon Evening "Driving and Kiting" Partridge Shooting in France Hints to young Par- tridge Shooters Gastronomic The Praises of Partridges Test of Age of Partridges S3 112 vi Contents. Page. PHEASANTS. Association with October Natural History of the Pheasant The Pheasant hi England The Ring-necked Pheasant The "Pied" Habits of Pheasants Plumage Panegyrics of the Pheasant Ants' Eggs for Pheasants Hybridising Hen Pheasant assuming Male Plumage Pheasant Shooting Pheasants and Poachers Battue and Open Shooting " Stonehenge's " Description of the Battue Legitimacy of Battue Shooting Over-preservation of Pheasants Mr. F. R. Bevan on Battue Shooting "Rough" Pheasant Shooting October Pheasant Shooting Dogs Hints on Pheasant Shooting Shooting at Pheasants Culinary Virtues of Pheasants Pheasants for Food Poisoning of Pheasants from Eating Shot 115 162 HARES. Hares not strictly " Game " Natural History Etymology of the word "Hare" Change of Colour in the Scotch Hare The Common Hare Tricks of Hares to escape observation Likely Spots for Hares Fecundity Colour and "Weight of Hares Mosaic Prohibition of the Hare as Food Domestication Cow- per's Tame Hares Shooting v. Coursing Hares Carrying away Shot Curious Accident with Two Hares Hare Driving in Scot- land The Hare Gastronomically and Economically Age of the Hare Close Time The Cooking of Hares Coursed and Hunted Hares 165208 RABBITS. Not Game according to Law Useful in Pheasant Preserves Natural History Etymology of the Word Habits and Method of Life Prolificness Domestication Hybrids between Rabbit and Hare Different kinds of Rabbits Gambols of Wild Rabbits Rabbit Shooting Dogs Ferreting Shooting with Ferrets The Seamy Side of Ferreting Management of Ferrets The act of Shooting the Rabbit Cautions The Rabbit Gastronomically Contents. vii Page. considered Prejudices against Rabbits Methods of Cooking Rabbit Warrens Rabbit Farming" Tinned" Rabbits Rabbit Law The Government Bill of May, 1880 211 244 QUAILS. Not recognised as Game Natural History Characteristics Ety- mology of the Word Home of the Quail Methods of Capturing The Note of the Quail Habits Quails at Malta Quails in England Districts most affected Importation of Quails Pug- nacity Curious Ideas concerning the Flesh of Quails " The Daintiest of Eating " 247272 WOODCOCKS. November the Month for Shooting Snipe and Woodcock Natural History of the Woodcock Plumage Appearance Intelligence Habits Distribution Varieties Woodcocks and their Young Migrations The Native Country of the Woodcock The Arrival of Woodcock Choice of Covers Traditions concerning Wood- cock Tactics of Woodcock Shooting The Haunts of the Woodcock Beating Marking Down Shooting Flight of the Woodcock Shooting in Covers Shot for Woodcock Shooting Pleasure of Woodcock Shooting Culinary Merits 275 316 SNIPE. Snipe Shooting a Winter Sport Natural History of the Snipe- Various kinds "Drumming" of Snipe The Common Snipe- Haunts of the Snipe Snipe Grounds about London Snipe Shooting on the Essex Marshes On Dartmoor The Vagaries of Snipe Shooting Snipe Hints on Snipe Shooting Shot for Snipe Shooting Dogs Beating for Snipe Marking down Snipe Terms used when speaking of Snipe Culinary Merits of Snipe 319354 vni Contents. ROOKS. Page. Rook-shooting a definitely recognised Sport Natural History of the Rook Rooks distinguished from Crows Alleged Damage to Crops by Rooks Entitled to Protection at the hands of the Farmer and Game Preserver Difficulty of Establishing Rookeries Tenacity to their Habitations Habits in their Communities The London Rook The Rookery in Gray's Inn Gardens Rook Shooting Decrease in the number of Rooks Social Aspects of Rook Shooting Advice to Rook Shooters Rook Pie . . . .357 389 GROUSE NOTES ON GAME & GAME SHOOTING. GROUSE. THE French, amongst other mad capers in which they nationally indulged at the close of the last century, re-arranged and gave new names to the months of the year, basing the nomenclature they invented on the real or supposed meteorological condition of each thirty days, or on the vegetable productions of the earth which ought then to be in season. Thus there was Nivose, "Snow- month ;" Pluviose, " Rain-month ;" Ventose, " Wind- month ;" Floreal, " Flower-month ;" Thermidor, " Heat- month ;" Fru6lidor, " Fruit-month," and so on : and after all there was a method in this madness, for the names were by no means badly chosen. If English sportsmen, B 2 4 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. and particularly the lovers of the gun, had to re-name the months, they would doubtless call August *' Grouse- month/' September " Partridge-month," Oftober " Phea- sant-month," November " Snipe" or (( Woodcock- month," and so forth. It is to the three first named of these months that the great body of sportsmen in the United Kingdom look forward from the time that they put away their guns at the end of January till they overhaul them at the beginning of August, preparatory to operations on the Twelfth, through November, "Snipe" or u Woodcock- month," with December and January, according to circum- stances and the season, afford plenty of miscellaneous shooting. In making a few notes and jottings on the above named birds, and the sport they afford us, I naturally take Grouse first in order, as in the Sportsman's Calendar they are the first game birds with which he deals at the opening of the shooting season. Ornithologically Grouse are classed under the order of the Gallinae, and are thus allied with various families and sub-families, which come under this order, for instance, pheasants, partridges, peacocks, turkeys, and "fowls," domestic and otherwise. The grouse family is that of the Tetraonidae ; and here I must at the outset indulge a weakness I have for etymology, and ask why this term Etymology of "Tetrao: was applied to the family in question. I know that " the judicious " Hooker says, and says well, that " he who seeketh a reason for all things destroy eth all reason ; " but I confess I like etymological reasons for nomencla- ture which is suggestive of a scientific character ; and it often happens that getting to the root of words opens up questions of interest connected with a subject in hand, in addition to settling that of verbal derivation. When writing my "Notes on Our Game Birds," in The Country, I was candid enough to confess that I was at a loss for the etymology of " Tetraonidse," or rather of "Tetrao," as applied to each species of grouse. I suggested that it might be derived from the Greek word which signifies " four," and sounds very like "Tetrao," and that it had been applied to grouse on account of their plump and sturdy configuration, which gave them the appearance of having bodies of four equal sides, or rather representing solid squares. In making this suggestion, I cannot say I was in full earnest, my object really being, as I indirectly inti- mated, to invite correspondents of The Country to help me, and I may add my readers, out of the ety- mological difficulty. I soon had my object attained by the appearance in the columns of the paper just 6 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. mentioned of communications from Benjamin Badaud, " Saxon/' and " Zoilus," the main portions of which I here insert. The first named says : " In the first place, f tetrao ' was never used by the Romans to express the bird we call ' grouse/ By it Pliny meant the bird we call a bustard, and so did Suetonius. (Vide Plin., 10, 20, and Suet. Calig. 22.) It would be superfluous to say that ' tetrao ' must have been formed from TTpdo)v, the root of which is rerpd^a) (glocio), to cluck or cackle, as the poultry correspondents will bear witness is the custom with hens who have just laid an egg. Now, I think 'Onomatopseia verbum ex sono fictum ' offers the most rational derivation of ' tetrao ' rerpdcov as well as of the Latin word ' glocio ' and the English word ' cluck ;' all three being derived from the sounds uttered by the birds. Every grouse shooter knows that of an old cock grouse, when forced to take flight rather unexpectedly. Those who never heard it may read an account of it in my paper on ( Taking the Grouse Census,' printed in the Field of nth August, 1855-" " Saxon " says that the writer in The Country " must surely be joking when he proposes to derive ' tetraonidae ' from the Greek word rerpa [in compound words] . The Etymology of "Tetrao." suggestion may be ingenious, but it is far-fetched, and, in my humble opinion, incorre6l. ' Tetraonidae' the family name has evidently the same etymology as ' tetrao,' which is derived from the Greek reTpdotv, a moor-fowl. Hesychius gives Terpdcov as being synony- mous with rerpdSwv and Terpaiov, both of which words appear to be etymologically connected with the verb Terpd&w, to cackle. Connected with rerpd^eiv are the words rerpaj; and Terpit;, and most probably all three of them were coined in fanciful imitation of the cry of the bird." " Zoilus " backs up the others, saying : " I agree with ' Saxon ' and Mr. Badaud that 'tetrao ' is in all probability derived from rerpd^ew, to cackle, in imitation of the bird's cry. An immense number of names have been given in this way, by what Mr. B. learnedly styles ' onomatopaeia.' The Latin words 'glocire,' ' glocito,' Gallice Glousses, have evidently been so formed. Even jrepSi^ perdix, perdrix, partridge, savour of the sound made by the bird's wings when rising, which, when louder than usual, generally announces fine weather and a good shooting day. I am of Mr. B.'s opinion that neither rerpalov nor ( tetrao ' signified a grouse, or moor-fowl, but rather a bustard, cane-petiere, 8 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. outarde, in French. Neither Greek nor Latin naturalists can be supposed to have been well acquainted with the denizens of the far north." Lest I should weary my present readers, and with the assurance that I am not going to bore them with many Greek words in the following pages, let me say that I am satisfied with the etymological explanations just given, though not with the appropriateness of the nomenclature, for I fail to appreciate the onomatopaeia (i.e., the giving of a name to a creature from some sound it utters) in this instance no grouse " tetracizing " sufficiently plainly to my ear to warrant the title of " Tetrao." But a moment unde derivatur " grouse? " I said in The Country that it was probably only a corruption of the word "gorse" furze and that hence the term "gor- cock," or " gorse-cock," was applied to the red grouse. Here, again, Mr. Badaud came to the rescue as follows : " With regard to the English word grouse, or gor-cock (not gorse-cock), we must again have recourse to onomatopaeia. ' Gor ' was prefixed to express the sound uttered by the bird when rising, and very often when settling. We have the word ( gor ' or ' gore-crow, ' a carrion-crow another example of onomatopaeia. Per- haps the word f grouse ' was derived from the Welsh The Grouse Family. ' grugiar ' from grug, ling, Scottice heather (Calluna -vulgaris)." Further, he pertinently remarks that red grouse are not often found in gorse (or furze) unless driven there by storms from the more congenial heather. The Grouse Family is distributed pretty widely through- out the Ar6lic and temperate regions ; but as far as we are concerned in the British islands we have only four species resident among us. These Macgillivray and most naturalists divide into two sub-families, to one of which the title " tetrao" is specially applied, and to the other " lagopus" The four species are respectively termed (i) Tetrao urogallus, the Capercaillie, or Capercailzie, or Cock-of-the-Wood ; (2) Tetrao tetrix, or Black grouse or Blackgame ; (3) Lagopus Scoticus or Red grouse ; and (4) Lagopus mutus, or albus, the Ptarmigan, or White grouse. This distinction is probably ornithologically correct, though some maintain that the red and the white grouse are not really more distinct one from the other than are low-country brown hares and mountain white ones. The term lagopus has been given to the two last named species of grouse because not only have they feathered tarsi, but because, like the hare (Xayw?, lagos), they have their feet feathered or covered with a hairy kind of plumage. io Notes on Game and Game Shooting. The following lines, in the " Hiawatha " metre, pic- turesquely enough describe the haunts of these varieties of grouse : In the north the Capercailzie Dwells amid the dark pine forests, And his husky crow at morning Wakes the echoes of the mountain ; Down whose side, with foam and sparkle, Leaps the streamlet, overshadowed By the drooping lady birches ; There his bold bright eye outflashes, Like a gem in scarlet setting : There his purple plumes resplendent Catch the sunshine as he walketh Proudly in his own dominions He the monarch among game birds ! On the purple heath-clad moorland, Where the grey cairn standeth lonely, And the ruined watch-tower telleth Of the border strife and foray ; There the Blackcock's glossy plumage Shines amid the stunted bushes, Juniper, and ling, and grasses Waving golden in the sunshine ; There his hoarse crow breaks the silence To the crouching Grey-Hen calling. All amid the broom sae bonnie, Where the silver gowans twinkle, Where the river to the lowlands, Floweth on as though rejoicing, Sterile heights to leave, and wander Through the fruitful plains and valleys ; There the Red Grouse Scottish muirfowl, The Caper cailhe. n In his dress of brown embroidered O'er with purple, gold, and crimson, Feeds on heather tops and berries, Flying oft from ridge to hollow, With his mates on sounding pinions Welcome sounds to eager sportsman ! Meantime where the mountain summits, Covered o'er with snowy mantles, Pierce the sky, and spots of verdure, Few and far between, seem islands In a sea of rolling billows, Dashing up their mingling foam-crests, There the Ptarmigan the white grouse Like in kind unto the moor-fowl, Dwells in solitude sublimest ; Lonely dwells where seldom cometh Foot of man ; where seldom echo Wakes to hear the mimic thunder Of the death-devoting barrel, 'Mid the peaks reverberating, 'Mid the glens and rocky hollows. Let me now take the four species of grouse in order, and say a few words concerning each ornithologically and from a sportman's point of view. The King of Grouse is decidedly the Capercaillie Tetrao urogallus, which latter word may be translated " Bull-cock/' the prefix "bull" in more languages than our own signifying "large" ; Cock-of-the-Wood is another name by which he is known ; and Buffon terms him Le Grand Coq de Bruyere. Some say that the old Gaelic 12 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. word Capullcoille meant literally " Horse-of -the- Wood," and that that was the bird's original appellation ; but the accomplished Gaelic scholar, Dr. Maclauchlan, holds that Capercaillie comes dire6l from the Gaelic Cabhar, old bird, and coille, wood. North of Inverness they say, or used to say, Capercabye, or Auer-calze, which remind us of the Dutch and German names for the bird, Auerhan and Ouerhan, both having reference to its large size. I have however seen it stated that the ur has nothing to do with urus, buffalo, and that it is a Danish primitive word, and that Auerhan means simply a meadow fowl. But who can decide when etymological doctors differ ? However, as the word is doubtless of Gaelic origin, it seems that orthographically we should write Capercaillie in pre- ference either to Capercailzie or Capercally, for the simple reason that there is no y or z in Gaelic. A noble bird indeed is the Capercaillie, the largest member of the grouse family, and of all British game birds ; and, with the exception of the cock pheasant, the brightest in plumage. Of course I am speaking of the cock bird, with his rich dress of black, brown and grey, beautifully shaded, and tinged with a fine glossy golden green. Over each large, full, flashing eye is a distinct arch of red ; he has the short, stout, conical bill, charac- Plumage of the Capercaillie. 13 teristic of the grouse family ; thick and strong legs, covered with brownish-grey feathers, and toes and claws black. This is the plumage of the adult cock, who, however, is not in full perfection till his third year, when he will weigh from ten to fifteen pounds, and measure over two feet and a half in length. The hen bird, though she may fairly be called the " Queen-of-the- Woods," is smaller, and of sober plumage, contrasting with the cock as the grey-hen does with her lord the blackcock, a sober mottled nondescript creature, and yet by no means uncomely. The capercaillie is poly- gamous, and all the cares of the young family rest with the mother, who lays from eight to sixteen eggs in a rude nest upon the ground, their colour being reddish- brown, spotted over with two shades of deeper colour. The young of both sexes resemble the mother till after their first moult, when the cocks begin to assume the male dress. To see the Cock-of-the-Woods in all his glory, you should visit his haunts in the far forest in the early spring, while the snow still bends the boughs, in the month of February; when, high up in the trees, and the feathers of his head erected in form of a crest, he challenges the attention of the sober hens, and suggests 14 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. that the season of lovemaking and incubation are at hand. Amid the pine-wood's depth of shade Have ye watched the Capercaillie, With shining purple plumes outspread, And bold bright eye, o'erarched with red, Bow condescendingly his head, With his sober mate to dally ? If you have not, good reader, and brother sportsman, as probably I may call you, do not miss an opportunity when you have one. We do not all live in Scotland, or Norway, or Sweden, or betake ourselves to one or other of these countries every spring-tide ; but, if per- chance you happen to be within reach of capercaillies when in the spring " their fancies lightly turn to thoughts of love/' as the Laureate says of other creatures, a day will be by. no means lost in stalking the birds for mere observation's sake, with a binocular in your pocket. The stalking is not very difficult, and you may get within easy distance of Urogallus, so absorbed are his faculties, and so little his fear of man at this interesting crisis. Watch his singular " play/' which is intended to draw the ladies of the neighbourhood to his amorous side. " During it," says Lloyd, " the neck is stretched out, his tail is raised and spread like a fan, his wings droop, his feathers are ruffed up, and, in The Wooing of the Caper caillie. 15 short, he resembles in appearance an angry turkey-cock. He begins his play with a call something resembling peller-peller-peller ; these sounds he repeats at inter- vals, but as he proceeds they increase in rapidity, until at last, and after, perhaps, the lapse of a minute or so, he makes a sort of gulp in his throat, and finishing with sucking in, as it were, his breath. During the con- tinuance of this latter process, which only lasts a few seconds, the head of the capercaillie is thrown up, his eyes are partially closed, and his whole appearance would denote that he is worked up in an agony of passion. The females within hearing make answer with a cry, which has been compared to the croak of a raven, and can only be represented in print by the words gock-gock-gock ; and with these unmusical sounds the woods for weeks are rife." In olden days, capercaillies were common enough both in Ireland and Scotland. Hector Boetius mentions them in 1526, and numerous historical references to them are quoted from that time up to the latter half of the last century. Probably, however, before 1750 they had been extirpated in Ireland, and not many years after they came to an end in Scotland. Their final disappearance from the latter country may be dated about the year 1760, though 1 6 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. it is said that one was shot near Inverness in 1780. Their introduction into Scotland is a matter of con- siderable interest both to the sportsman and naturalist. The earliest attempt is associated with the name of the Earl of Fife, in 1827-28, at Braemar, who raised some poults from imported birds. But, practically, the re-intro- duction of this noble game bird dates from 1837-8, when birds from Sweden were turned down in the forests round Taymouth Castle, by the Marquis of Breadalbane. These increased and multiplied, and gradually estab- lished colonies in other districts by a process of emigra- tion. The range of the capercaillie, taking Taymouth Castle as the starting point, now lies, roughly, between the North Esk river on the north-east, and Loch Lomond on the south-west, the Forest of Athole bounding it on the north-west, and the Firth of Forth on the south-east. A separate establishment of the species was made in Arran in 1 843, from birds from Taymouth Castle woods, but owing to the limited area of wood, they have not increased to any great extent. Some difference of opinion exists in Scotland as to the desirability of cul- tivating, if I may use the term, these birds. Not a few persons hold that they do so much damage to the pines by picking out the terminal buds, and eating the young The Capercaillie in Scotland. 17 shoots, which form their principal food, that their presence is to be deprecated. Hence, in some districts, and especially where planting is being extensively carried out, they are shot down without mercy when they make their appearance. Then, again, they have their enemies in those who hold that capercaillies gradually drive away blackgame, and who deal with them accordingly. What, therefore, may be the ultimate result of the re-introduction of this bird is doubtful ; but, already, it has afforded in recent years considerable sport in various localities, and good bags have given proof of its successful re-establishment. Those who take an interest in this question cannot do better than make themselves acquainted with an admirable monograph of " The Capercaillie in Scotland," by J. A. Harvie- Brown, F.L.S., published by David Douglas, of Edin- burgh, in which they will find a full account of the facts to which I have briefly alluded, and an excellent defence, based on evidence and reason, of the Capercaillie, to the charges alleged against it. There can be little doubt but that the great majority of sportsmen, especially of Englishmen who hie north- ward for sport in the autumn, would heartily rejoice in a still more abundant supply of the Cock-of-the- Woods. C 1 8 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. Capercaillies, though they seek refuge in the trees, afford much better sport than some persons would suppose. It might be imagined, as a recent writer truly remarks, that the great size of the bird would render capercaillie shooting a not very difficult matter in the daytime. They are not, however, so easily brought down. The generality of covert shooting in Scotland is done in line, and as the birds perch high up in the tree- tops, they get a good view of the advancing enemy. They therefore rarely allow the latter to approach within fair gunshot, but take their flight in time, and always from the " other side " of the tree. Whether there is a special Providence to guide the capercaillie to perch on the reverse side of the tree to that which the gunner is approaching, or whether they take the precaution to move there on the first sound or sight of danger, seems doubtful ; but it is believed that an instance of one departing from this very sensible practice is not within the ken of man. Very few are consequently killed in the ordinary drive, and even if they take flight within gun- shot, the swoop downwards which they always make at starting gives them such an impetus that they skim off on the " other side " at a pace that often carries them off at long range before a trigger can be pulled ; then firing Shooting the Caper caillie. 19 had better be left alone, as it takes a good deal to bring these giants down. As they are polygamous, it is desirable, even while endeavours are being made to in- crease the number of the species, to kill off a good many of the cocks. A special arrangement, not altogether for the benefit of the latter, is on this account made by send- ing on a gun or two to wait in a concealed spot and in a favourable position while the beaters and the other guns drive up towards them from the other end of the beat. This is the only way in which a capercaillie can be fairly circumvented, and, although his trick of dodging out on the other side saves him from his approaching enemies, he has to run the gauntlet of his foes in ambush. These watch him as he comes swiftly skimming along between the trunks of the tall pines, looking, with his hooked beak, more like a large bird of prey than anything else, and salute him at 20 or 30 yards with a charge of No. i, or, better still, of B B shot. Down he comes with a ponderous thud on the ground, or, if there is deep snow, his great weight plunges him into the drift, com- pletely burying him therein a truly royal burial for such royal game. By all means, then, let the re-establishment of these grand wood grouse go on. The modern system of C 2 2O Notes on Game and Game Shooting. planting large districts of the Scottish Highlands with fir is greatly in its favour ; and a familiar sight may yet be The giant grouse, where boastful he displays His breast of varying green, and crows and claps His glossy wings. . . . For the present, however, the capercaillie is a rara avis as far as the generality of sportsmen on Scottish shootings are concerned ; but of late years few of us have' been un- familiar with his appearance as presented at the poulterers' shops in the metropolis and provincial towns a poor bundle of lifeless feathers indeed, by no means attri6live, and little suggestive of the bird in his living majesty. The capercaillies of commerce come mainly from Norway and Sweden, few Scotch birds crossing the border. In 1879 they were cheaper than ever I remember them, a good cock bird being procurable for five shillings, and a hen for sixpence less. In flavour they are not equal to the red grouse, but still excellent birds, when kept for a judicious period, "roasted to a turn," and served with bread sauce. Like the hen pheasant the hen capercaillie is more tender and of more refined flavour than the cock ; and as a matter of taste I think that, like pheasants, capercaillies are better eaten cold than hot. Let us now pass on to Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix], The Blackcock and Grey-hen. 21 though I need not attempt to discuss them at any very great length from a sporting point of view. They are not, except in certain - districts and at certain times, the special quarry of the sportsman intent on grouse shooting. Legally, they may be killed on the 2oth of August, but, doubtless, on the I2th, when they are sprung, they fall " by mistake " to the breechloaders, in company with their congeners the red grouse, just as, " by mistake," outlying pheasants often find their way into the game bag during the partridge shooting of September. Ornithologically, the Blackcock is a bird of character, and in saying a few words about him I must be ungallant enough to say still less about his sober mate the Grey- hen, though, by the way, as he is a polygamous creature, unlike his more proper cousin, the red grouse, he is hardly entitled to be called mated at all. Like the hen capercaillie, the grey-hen is but a dull, sober, mottled creature, and barred with dusky red and black above and below, and smaller than the blackcock, which often weighs as much as 4lbs. The latter is indeed a bonnie bird, and noble looking when in full fettle and plumage. His chief colour is a handsome black, with a glossy blue over the neck and back ; the wing-coverts are brownish, 22 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. with the greater coverts white, forming a white spot on the shoulder when the wing is closed. The tail is black and much forked, or rather " fluked/ 1 so as to resemble a classic lyre ; and hence the bird is called by some naturalists Lyrurus. Above the eye is the crimson spot common to the Tetraonidds family, and below it there is a white streak. Altogether a handsomer bird one need hardly wish to look on, and when first killed is a very different spectacle from that which he presents after being packed in a hamper and hung outside a poulterer's shop. The time to see the young cocks at their best is when, intent on polygamy, they are preparing for inter- necine battles, in order to secure the largest harem of the sober-coloured hens. A graphic picture has been drawn by Sir Wm. Jardine of what may be observed on such occasions : " In the warmer sunny days, at the conclusion of winter and the commencement of spring, the males, after feeding, may be seen arranged on some turf-fence or rail pluming their wings, expanding their tails, and practising their love-call. If the weather now continues warm the flocks soon separate, and the males sele6l some conspicuous spot, from whence they endea- vour to drive all rivals and commence to display their arts to allure the females. Here, after perhaps The Mating of Blackcock. 23 many battles have been fought and rivals vanquished, the noble full-dressed blackcock takes his stand. Com- mencing at the first dawn of day, and when the game is abundant, the hill on every side repeats the humming call. They strut around the spots selected, trailing their wings, inflating the throat and neck, and puffing up the plumage of these parts and the now brilliant wattle above the eyes, raising and expanding their tails, and displaying the beautifully contrasted white under tail covers He is soon heard by the females, who crowd around their lord and master. This season of admiration does not last long. The females disperse to make their nests and hatch out their young ; while the males, losing all gallantry and their feeling for love and fighting, seek the shelter of the brush and fern beds, and exhibit a degree of timidity the very reverse of their former boldness." A most interesting bird ornitho- logically is the blackcock, and it is a pity he is not as gastronomically excellent. He cannot compare in flavour with the red grouse or even ptarmigan, and, indeed, in the opinion of many learned gourmets, is hardly worth eating. His external beauties, however, are sufficient to make amends for the insipidity of his flesh ; and no wonder that the poets have often taken 24 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. him as a subject for their verse. The following lines are probably familiar to most of my readers, who, as sportsmen or naturalists, are interested in this grand bird : Have you heard the Blackcock's husky crow In the cool grey light of the morning, When the mists were on the vale below And the mountain tops were all aglow With ruddy beams that served to show The pathway of the dawning ? Burns has sung of the Black Grouse, and Johanna Baillie thus addresses it : Good-morrow to thy sable beak And glossy plumage, dark and sleek ; Thy crimson moon and azure eye, Cock of the heath, so wildly shy ! At the beginning of the shooting season, however, though the old cocks are shy enough, the young ones are very tame and easily shot. The coveys are generally to be found in marshy places, where they feed upon the rush seeds, and they lie very close in this cover. But, as before intimated, blackgame shooting substantially differs little from ordinary red grouse shooting at its opening, when it is followed, as it seldom is, as a distinct sport. The scent of blackgame is strong, and is soon recognised by a steady dog. With care a whole brood may be got, as the young birds, like partridges in olden days, when Shooting of Blackgame. 25 they had plenty of cover, lie close, and get up one by one. The grey-hen is very loth to rise, and you may often see her creeping about within a few yards of you, reminding you of the lines : Have ye stooped among the heath and ling, To see the Grey-hen stealing, With her speckled pouts of tender wing, That closely to the covert cling, And fear to take the final spring, Their whereabouts revealing ? But when she does get up it is with a terrible flutter, enough to unnerve any but a practised and seasoned sportsman. If you spring a covey out of shot they will not go very far at the beginning of the season, and in nine cases out of ten, with a fair amount of luck and skill, you may account for the majority of them. But what you are going to do in the way of " straightforward" blackcock shooting you must do quickly. As the season progresses, and the birds leave the sedgy moors for the outskirts of fields and the thickets, and become partly gregarious, they become also very wary, and have a habit of planting sentinels to give warning of the approach of danger. You have then to fall back on the " ambush " system in the early morning and late evening, and deliberately shoot them as they settle down on their 26 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. feeding grounds. This, however, is not a very dignified proceeding, but it is an acknowledged form of killing blackcock, and not tabooed as actually unsportsmanlike. Another method pursued is that of beating small coverts and woods for the birds, but it requires no little general- ship to place the guns properly and give proper instruc- tions to the beaters to make it a success. The birds know what is going on as well as you do, and manage to slip away with surprising adroitness. Then, again, there is the "stalking" system for birds in the open, more easily described than practised, like many other sporting operations. However, it may be done with success if you have a fair knowledge of the locality an-J r.re possessed of a good stock of patience and perseverance. There is something very attractive to most sportsmen in stalking anything, and to outwit a wary blackcock late in the season is a feat attended with infinitely more satisfaction than killing down most of a young brood in early days. At the beginning of the season No. 6 is the best sized shot to use, but later on 5 and 4 should be brought into requisition, and it should be remembered that a hard- hitting gun is wanted, as a blackcock can carry away a lot of corns. The flight of blackgame is very peculiar ; when seen on the wing at a distance, especially if the day The Flight of Blackgame. 27 be a little misty, they very much resemble wild ducks, both in the form of their bodies and the motion of their wings. They fly with their heads and necks stretched out exa6lly like ducks, maintaining a steady determined sort of flight. I remember that the first blackgame I ever saw on the wing was on a foggy morning, on some moorland in North Devon. For a long time nothing would satisfy me that they were not mallards. By the way, as they are much in the habit of following ea.ch other in the same track, by standing still when they are disturbed on some neighbouring shooting, you may often get three or four shots in succession. But this is later on in the season. At the opening sportsmen will content themselves with working the young broods, the cocks of which may be distinguished, when flying, by the white feathers in their tails, for in other respe6ts their plumage is very similar to that of the old hens. To bring down an old cock, however, is the best and most satisfactory business, for in more than one particular the old cocks are most undesirable birds to leave on a shooting. The Black Grouse are more widely distributed than either of the other species, as they have an extensive range over Europe in the temperate districts, and are also found in abundance in Norway and Sweden. In 28 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. these islands also they are found in many more localities than is the red grouse, the latter not having become acclimatised in England lower than Derbyshire and Staffordshire, notwithstanding several attempts to intro- duce it into Cornwall and Devonshire and elsewhere, whereas the black grouse still hold their own in some parts of Devonshire, Somersetshire, Hampshire, and other heath and moor districts of England. Almost all the hilly districts of Scotland hold them, and their range extends as far up as Sutherlandshire, and into the islands of Mull and Skye. They occur but rarely in Ireland. The black grouse, though so nearly allied to the red, strangely enough do not mix with the latter ; and, indeed, they are rather enemies one to the other, and, like trout and grayling in the same river, do not seem to flourish in close contiguity, the black grouse, in the opinion of many game preservers, dominating over the red and preventing their due increase. However, it comes to pass, for- tunately, that as their food is somewhat different, so they are disposed to frequent different parts of an extensive moor, the black grouse preferring the more swampy lands with rank vegetation, where they find food more con- genial to them and a more abundant supply of water than their red cousins require. Still, in a day's shooting over Disease and Hybrids amongst Blackgame. 29 an extensive tra6l, the blacks and the reds get pretty well mingled after they have been disturbed, and on many moors sportsmen will find that the chance is about equal, each time their dogs stand, whether they will get a shot at black or red game. A peculiar feature in the natural history of the black grouse is that, comparatively speaking, it is free from the disease or diseases which from time to time cause such sad havoc among the red species a fa6l which may be accounted for partly because it does not depend mainly on the heather for its food, and partly because the male parents of the young birds are the victorious cocks, and so the most vigorous males, in the annual battles for the females before the breeding season. Blackgame have a strong tendency to interbreed with other species of the same order or family, and crosses with the pheasant, the capercaillie, the ptarmigan, and the barn- door fowl have been noted, and some have been figured by Yarrell in his " History of British Birds." Rarely, however, has a cross been observed between the black- game and red grouse, for the latter, being strictly monogamous birds, are less likely than the other kind of grouse to produce hybrids. In some districts of Scotland of late years, there has 30 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. been a visible decrease of blackgame, a state of things to be attributable partly to extensive drainage and the improvement of rough land, and partly to the various devices for shooting the bird from ambuscades, which practices in several localities have almost brought about the entire extermination of the species. The Ptarmigan, from an ornithological point of view, is perhaps the most interesting of the Tetraonidss, though, like the capercaillie and the black grouse, it is not an object for sport on the i2th August, and it is not often indeed that it is specially sought after by sportsmen. It is called, as I have already said, Lagopus mutus, from the fact of its changing its plumage, or albus, the latter term designating it the White Grouse, in contradistinc- tion to the black and the red grouse. Ornithological authorities, indeed, vary their nomenclature, and by some the bird is termed Lagopus vulgaris, and by others Tetrao lagopus. The word ptarmigan is a slight modification of the Gaelic name tarmachan^ and it is as the ptarmigan that the bird is best known. The Ptarmigan by nature is an inhabitant of Arctic regions, and abounds in the Scandinavian Peninsula and Iceland. How it came to us is a matter of some doubt, but the most plausible suggestion is that many years ago The Habitat of the Ptarmigan. 31 some members of the species were blown to the Scotch coast in a gale of wind from the districts just mentioned. Some high authorities, however, maintain that our Scottish ptarmigan is really distinct from the foreign, and that its existence in North Britain is an evidence that, at some remote period, Scotland had a truly Arctic climate. Some years ago the ptarmigan was a dweller amid the hills of Cumberland and Westmoreland and some other parts of England, but now it is to be found no further southward than the Grampians. The further north you go among the Highlands the more plentiful does it become. It does not exist in Ireland, and, though once known in Wales, it has not, I believe, been seen there for more than half a century. In Scotland the snow- covered peaks and bare rocks, far above the heathery region inhabited by its relative, the red grouse, are the principal haunts of the bird. I well remember the delight with which I first beheld the ptarmigan, one fine morning in the late autumn Sitting in her home sublime, High o'er cloudland's boundless sea at the top of one of the Grampian passes, while several in their winter garb flew over my head in company with their red cousins. A modern author, who combines in 32 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. his one person the rare qualifications of sportsman, litterateur, and gunmaker, Mr. J. D. Dougall, of Picca- dilly and Glasgow, in a poem of singular beauty, thus speaks of the bird : Far up on desert mountains lone, Where all is rock and cold grey stone, Save where the hard and glist'ning snow Mocks at the noon- sun's fiercest glow ; When nought of vegetable life Can bear the elemental strife ; Nor track of foot nor sound of wing The presence tells of living thing. * * * * * Yet can be found one creature fair, To mark that breathing life is there The Ptarmigan ! whose kindred race On Greenland's icy shores we trace, Or by that Hyperborean bay, Once hail'd as route for far Cathay Loves there to dwell, nor seeks to know The placid scenes outstretched below ; Where, far beneath her cloud-girt nest, The grouse and grey-hen seek their rest. In vain the seasons come and go In vain for her the wild heaths blow In vain fair spring, with flowery grace, Would lure her from that barren place ; Summer in vain his glory pours, And autumn opes his golden stores ; In vain fierce winter's ruthless gale Would drive her to the shelter'd vale. Her love of home these wiles disarms, For her those deserts have their charms. Ptarmigan Shooting. 33 Oh let her there unharm'd remain, Nor grudge her that poor, rude domain ! Rather rejoice, that unlike man, The lone, but lovely Ptarmigan Pleased with her scanty mountain fare, The open skies and ambient air Seems to our earth on purpose sent, An emblem of sublime content, To show how beauteous lives have thriven On nought save penury and heaven ! Another poet, whose lines on the capercaillie and the blackcock and grey-hen I have already quoted, says : But have ye clomb the Alpine height, 'Mid rock and snowdrift, seeking The Ptarmigan with plumage white, That crouches, hidden from the sight, Where scarce a sound by day or night Upon the air is breaking ? And yet once more, a writer, many years ago, in 11 Blackwood's Magazine," addresses the ptarmigan as Haunter of the herbless peak, Habitant 'twixt earth and sky, Snow white bird of bloodless beak, Rushing wing, and rapid eye. The pursuit of the common red grouse is, under many circumstances, toilsome enough ; but he is indeed an ardent and hardy sportsman who endures and overcomes the many difficulties of penetrating those alpine solitudes D 34 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. frequented by the ptarmigan, where there is hardly a sound of living creature to be heard but the scream of the eagle. However, in the opinion of many, the game is well worth the candle ; and who shall say it is not ? One of the great charms of sport is when success has been attained under special difficulties. I can, there- fore, heartily sympathise with the Scotch naturalist, Macgillivray, a true son of The land of brown heath and shaggy wood, The land of mountain and the flood ; when he says : " I am much inclined to persuade myself that a brace of ptarmigans brought home, after a hard day's marching, from the craggy summit of some misty hill in the Gael land, could afford more pleasure than a whole thicket full of pheasants." The change of plumage undergone by the ptarmigan as the winter approaches is a phenomenon of great interest to the naturalist. It is difficult to describe the marking of the bird in the summer. It is a mixture of black, yellow, white, and grey, exactly resembling the variety of colour of the mossy lichen-covered rocks and stones and patches of stunted heather, amid which it lies con- cealed from all but the most practised eyes during the summer and early autumn, while it gradually becomes The Plumage of the Ptarmigan. 35 whiter as the season advances, and, at last, nearly assimilates itself to the snows of winter. Then the bird is pure white, except that the outer tail feathers, the shafts of the quills, and a streak from the eye to the beak are black. Thus there is a double provision for the safety of the ptarmigan in accordance with the season of the year. Moreover, the white plumage enables the bird to bear the rigours of the winter with greater com- fort, in accordance with the well-known law that white objects reflect the heat more readily than darker ones and radiate it more slowly. And there is yet another provision of Nature for the defence of the ptarmigan against cold, inasmuch as the plumage on the legs and toes, which in the summer is of a hair-like texture, becomes of a more furry and closer character, while the bill of the bird is almost hidden. Such is the " lone but lovely ptarmigan," which so loves the freedom of the mountains that it never breeds in captivity, nor indeed, lives long when subject to restraint. Ptarmigan are monogamous, but evince a liking for forming into packs, which gradually break up in early spring when the pairing commences. Their nests are loosely constru6led heaps of twigs and grass, and are generally found placed under some projecting stone, D 2 36 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. stunted bush, or tuft of mountain herbage ; and their com- plement on an average from ten to a dozen eggs, of a reddish white spotted with brown. It requires considerable tetraonic enthusiasm to say much in favour of the flesh of the ptarmigan. It is vastly inferior to that of the red grouse. However, it is edible, and the tens of thousands of ptarmigan which are now imported from northern Europe, particularly from Sweden and Norway, find a ready sale in London and elsewhere at the moderate prices which are asked. The Red Grouse, Lagopus scoticus, as termed by Mac- gillivray, from both a sporting and gastronomic point of view, is the most important of the four species of Tetrao- nidds which are found in this country. It is the grouse par excellence ; and enjoys a multitude of names. By some it is called the Brown Ptarmigan, in accordance with the view that it is only a "low country " ptarmigan, just as there are low country brown hares and mountain white ones. Moor or muir fowls, moor cock and hen, and gorcock are more local and familiar titles ; while, again, it is the Tetrao scoticus of Linnaeus, Latham, Temminck, and others, and the L'Altagas of Buffon. The generic term of Lagopus signifies "haresfoot," and like the white ptarmigan, the red grouse has not only The Red Grouse a Native Bird. 37 feathered tarsi, but its feet are covered with thick short plumage. We may claim the red grouse to be one of the indigenous fauna of these islands, being found in England, Scotland, and Ireland, but not on the Continent or elsewere. Hence the suggestion that its specific name should be Britannicus ; but its greater abundance north of the Tweed than in England or Ireland fairly entitles Scotland to the compliment of having it named after the land of heather. In England, Staffordshire and Derbyshire are the southern limits of its range, and and as the reclamation of waste land in these counties advances it is inevitable that the grouse will gradually retire northwards. Attempts to acclimatise the birds farther south have hitherto failed ; for instance, on Dart- moor, in Devonshire, and on the Cornish moors, but, possibly, with perseverance, success might eventually be attained. The result of the experiment made by the Prince of Wales in 1879 to acclimatise the red grouse on his estate at Sandringham was looked forward to with considerable interest, and as North Norfolk is a great deal farther to the north than Devonshire and Cornwall, and indeed is almost on the same parallel with the grouse districts of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, there seemed a 38 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. good hope that the attempt would succeed. The doubt was whether the heath tracts of Sandringham and the neighbourhood were sufficiently extensive and hilly for the birds to take kindly to, as a considerable range of open mountain and heathery moorland seem necessary to their existence. They love not woods of birch and reedy swamps, like the blackcock, nor dark pine forests, like the capercaillie ; and although they do not retire so far from the haunts of men as the ptarmigan in the higher alpine regions, yet they must have " ample scope and verge enough " for flight and feeding ground. Unfortu- nately the Sandringham experiment did not succeed, as we were informed by Dr. Macdonald, in the autumn of 1879. The fourteen brace of birds, procured from Aber- deenshire, only produced two covies, of which one entirely perished, and the other was greatly reduced in numbers, owing to foul play. It is just possible that the experiment would have shown a better result if Staffordshire, Derby- shire or Yorkshire grouse had been obtained, rather than birds from the north of Scotland. Perhaps, after all, the idea of extending the red grouse southward had better be given up, and attention turned to the acclimatisation of the Pinnated grouse (Cupido cupidonia), of America, which would be likely to do well among us. The Plumage of the Red Grouse. 39 A handsome bird is the cock red grouse when fully grown and in full season. His plumage is a rich sienna brown, beautifully waved and mottled, and shaded with lighter tints, the throat sometimes assuming a coppery hue, and the belly deepening into black, or nearly so. The feathers of the tail, which are not forked like those of the blackcock, are brown, barred and edged with red. It has the same rough scarlet spot over the eyes as the other members of the grouse family, and the legs are almost white, offering a strange contrast to the rest of the plumage. Those who only know the bird as he hangs in the poulterers' shops, or as taken from the hamper, however carefully packed, can have little idea of his beauty when first killed and not much mangled with shot. The first grouse I ever killed was a grand cock bird, in Chapel-le-Dale, Yorkshire, when " driving." He was hit in some way which caused him to tower a little, and, with a gentle fluttering of his wings, he fell within my rampart about a yard from me. So beautiful was he that I could hardly identify him with the grouse of our shops. The female is of duller shades than the male. In the early part of the year, as the breeding season approaches, the colours of both the cock and hen become brighter and more distinct. 4O Notes on Game and Game Shooting. It is a curious fa6l that the red grouse vary con- siderably in both size and colour in different districts. In Argyleshire, for instance, they are larger and brighter than in most other localities, but they are still larger and redder in the most western highlands. In Perth- shire they are much smaller and darker. In York- shire and other English moors, and in the Scotch lowlands, they are of a much lighter shade than the more northern birds. The rule seems to be that the brighter and more abundant the heather the brighter the birds. Indeed, it may almost be said of grouse that the birds vary on each moor, just as the trout do in different streams. I noticed some years ago that in a not very broad Yorkshire valley the birds bred on one side varied from those bred on the other. Unlike the black grouse, the red grouse are strictly monogamous ; but the cock, to his discredit, does not appear to attend to his parental duties in reference to the young brood as assiduously as some male birds do ; but both the male and female will fight boldly in defence of their chicks when attacked by various kinds of "vermin." The red grouse make but a rude nest of dried grass, leaves, and other handy odds and ends, in some slight rocky or sandy hollow beneath Food of the Red Grouse. 41 a turf of heather or low bush, and the female lays from eight to fourteen eggs of a dingy white colour spotted with brown. Like partridges, the red grouse seem attached to the spot where they are hatched, and do not wander very far from it unless much disturbed. Various berries, mountain and moorland plants, but particularly the young shoots of the heather, form the common food of the red grouse ; but when cultivated lands are near their haunts, they will often visit the cornfields and " stooks," and make the farmer contribute to their maintenance. Altogether the red grouse are most interesting birds, and as good gastronomically as they are interesting ornithologically, and prolific of grand sport for the gun. It is somewhat strange that our French neighbours do not seem to appreciate grouse flesh as much as we do, and even shrink from the bitter back, which the English gourmet so highly prizes. We need not, however, lament over what we feel to be their lack of good taste, as it checks the exportation of the bird. If ever it becomes as popular in Paris as it is in London, the result will be an increase of prices, which, even in good years, are sufficiently high to make a brace of grouse out of reach of ordinary mortals. 42 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. It is almost impossible to exaggerate the glories of grouse shooting, and the difficulties connected with it in no slight degree enhance its enjoyment to healthy minds and genuine sportsmen. Moreover, the large amount of positive enjoyment which attends the pursuit of game in the wild solitudes of nature, amid which the grouse are to be found, imparts to this game an increased value in the eyes of the lover of natural scenery. There is a wild delirious kind of delight in breathing pure fresh mountain air amid the wide wild moors, that richly rewards the grouse shooter for his hardships and privations. He has his trials and labours, sure enough ; his toilsome climbing up steep ascents and long, long walks over interminable moorlands ; desperate encounters with armies of old Scotia's emblems, the rough and sturdy thistles, and gorse and juniper bushes ; his wadings through burns and rivulets ; the rain and mountain mist, and fog that wraps him about like a damp garment, as he goes ranging, as Craven has it, " up to his loins in a sort of vegetable ocean ; " and the broiling sun on cloudless days, when The silent hills and forest tops seem reeling in the heat, when the gun-stock almost blisters the hand, and the skin peels from the face, and " the perspiration " trickles Red Grouse Shooting. 43 down in a continuous stream ; but what are all these drawbacks, difficulties, and labours compared with the genuine enjoyment experienced by the free ranger of the hills and moors ? He knows joys which only sportsmen wot of : Though sluggards deem it but a foolish chase, And marvel men should quit their easy chair, The toilsome way and long, long leagues to trace ; Oh ! there is sweetness in the mountain air, And life, which bloated ease can never hope to share. Many a brain -worker from the Senate, the Bar, and other callings, many a harassed " City man," and many an idler for the greater part of the twelve months, adds years to his life by the wholesome work and unique excitement of grouse shooting. Released from the ties and cares of business, from the strain of intellectual work, from the tiresome conventionalities and exactions of " society," or from whatever has held him fast week after week, and wearied him out soul and body, there is no man in the world who experiences such an intense and pleasurable feeling of relief as the fortunate mortal arrived at his shooting box, as, gazing forth on the wide expanse of blooming heather which is about to yield him the most charming of sport, he fain would shout at the very top of his voice 44 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. The moors ! the moors ; the spreading moors ! The purple seas that have no shores ! The hills sublime Who would not climb, All in this golden autumn time ? A happy man indeed ; his happiness being increased by the inward consciousness that there is little to be said against his pastime. Grouse shooting is a genuine sport, fair and legitimate in every aspe6l ; and to secure success even over a well stocked moor a man must have a good pair of legs, a true sportsman's patience and perseverance, and be a fair shot. Certainly, after the first few days are over, and the cream of the shooting, as far as many and easy shots are concerned, has been taken off, and the birds have become wilder, it is about an equal contest between them and the gun, and even with the modern improvement in our arms of precision it takes a good sportsman all his time to make a fair bag. His sport, too, as I have said, escapes the adverse criticism so freely launched at some other kinds of shooting. The grouse shooter is but little scolded. He is not as the man who shoots pigeons, or pheasants, or even partridges. He is not as the deerstalker, who is accused of having been instrumental in robbing the poor man of his mutton ; neither is he as the sportsman who goes to India, Red Grouse Shooting. 45 Ceylon, or Africa, and destroys " big game " merely because it is big. Each and all of these are perpetually getting into trouble with one section or other of the public. The slayer of pheasants, for instance, is told that his quarry is too tame and that he kills too many ; that he is either a butcher or a henwife, and, in fact, no sportsman at all. The deerstalker, again, u gets it hot/' and may almost be said to be troubled with a conscious- ness of his own guilt. He is often told that if there were no deer in the forest there would be sheep, and possibly Scotchmen ; but then he is aware, too, that he could not shoot Scotchmen or sheep, and so he persists in his wickedness, drawing down the maledictions of professed philanthropists and political economists of the philosophical school on his head. The grouse shooter has no such qualms to get over, or unpleasant reflections to push aside. There is not a lamb less on the hills or a chop less in the market because of this sport. But, per contra^ there is no little disappointment and vexation occasionally attendant on grouse shooting. The shooting-box in the Highlands does not always come up to the pleasant dream previously indulged in, and the shooting sometimes turns out a delusion and snare, The box itself is often found to be a dreary tenement, standing 46 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. treeless, gardenless, flowerless, on the barren road side, the very pi6lure of desolation even on a bright day. It is often very bare of even necessary furniture, and perhaps not even watertight. Nothing cheerful, nothing snug or cosy ; and if, as happens from time to time the weather prevents the tenant from putting his nose outside, a more pitiable prisoner than he can hardly be conceived. The commissariat, too, sometimes breaks down, and as the box may be a considerable number of " miles from a lemon," as Sydney Smith once de- scribed a remote country place, many wants have to be endured rather than supplied. All this, however, may be put up with if the sport be good ; but here, also, there is often the most grievous breakdown of all. There is grouse shooting and grouse shooting. The morning of the 1 2th has broken, and the day arrived for testing the truth of the representations of the lessor and the reports of the keepers which have been so favourable for weeks past. The dogs are slipped, and they shoot off at a dash as if they mean to stop at nothing this side of the horizon. They work miles of ground, and the guns plod along wearily. No point, not even a draw. A wary old cock grouse or two is flushed, which fly off with a crow of derision ; but practically the moor is barren ! Here is Red Grouse Shooting. 47 vanity and vexation of spirit. The dreams, anticipations, and hopes of the sportsman are shattered. In vain all the trouble and expense to which he has put himself, for hardly a feather can be got. He cannot endure the disappointment with equanimity. No one could. It is all very well to say that men go northward for change of scene and air, for wholesome exercise, for rest, and a thousand other things. Yes ; but imprimis they go for grouse, and if they do not get grouse they all feel annoyed, yea, exasperated, or they are fearfully and hopelessly depressed. There is the painful consciousness that they have assisted at a grand failure, that they have been stultified, perhaps victimised. If, in an average year and on a well-stocked moor, it costs the renter 2 per brace for all the grouse he kills, what must be the loss of the sportsman who kills next to nothing ? As for the bitterness of his disappointment, that we can never appraise. By September the birds get wild, and packing becomes general, especially if the weather be wet ; and even before the first week's shooting is over it often happens that the birds can only be bagged by " driving." Much has been said and written against this practice, and also on behalf of it. I shall certainly not attempt a long and 48 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. learned disquisition on the debated subject. Those who wish to see it fully and ably discussed will find a long article on it in " Blackwood's Magazine," of March, 1873, which treats of the famous grouse season of the previous year. I have my own opinion, and hold that driving is compatible with genuine sportsmanship, and that the practice is perfectly legitimate. It is easy enough to decry it, but those who know what grouse driving really is, the difficulty of securing a good bag, even with the advantage it gives the gun, and the necessity for having recourse to it nowadays, when the birds are much wilder than in former times, are convinced of its legitimacy, and acknowledge it as a most enjoyable form of sport- It requires good generalship in arranging the beats and posting the guns, and carrying out all the details of the day's work, to say nothing of the excel- lency of aim required to stop birds which are flying from forty to fifty miles an hour, and often at a far greater rate when assisted by a strong wind. Add to all these and other considerations the fa6l that, in driving grouse when they have become too wild to shoot at the tails of "Sam" and " Sancho," the old birds, pugnacious cocks, and barren hens, the pests of the moor, fall equally to the gun, as do their children, grandchildren, nephews, Hints to Grouse Shooters. 49 and nieces, and other members of younger generations. Moreover, a man who owns or rents a moor naturally wants to get a fair amount of game off it ; and this he may fail to do by the so-called " legitimate " method of shooting, and yet there may be abundance of birds on his range. Why, then, should he not have a drive or two so that he may have the pleasure of sending a few brace to his friends, or even to market, in order to recoup some part of his expenses ? There are two points which I have always considered of prime importance in grouse shooting. The first is, not to begin shooting too early in the morning. The sport, indeed, holds forth fascination enough to draw the laziest sportsman from his bed soon after sunrise, but an early start is a mistake. If delayed till between nine and ten o'clock 'the birds will have had time to feed and settle down again in the heather ; and as they lie best towards the afternoon and evening, there is plenty of time to make a good bag. Wild shooting at the outset is not likely to improve as the day goes on, and, however steady the dogs, birds are so restless at early morning that the best shots are apt to get flurried and fancy something is wrong with their shoot- ing, when in reality they are not giving themselves a E 50 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. fair chance. The second point is to refrain from working a moor in stormy weather, as it renders the birds wild and makes them pack earlier than should be the case. A forgetfulness of this at the beginning of the season often spoils the sport of ordinary shooting, and necessitates driving before its time. My last remark on grouse will be a gastronomic one, in reference to the length of time that these birds will keep if hung in a cool place, where they are also exposed to a current of air. I was, in the year 1873, one of a party grouse driving in Chapel-le-Dale, Yorkshire, in the last week of December. As an experiment, two brace of the birds were kept till the first week of the following March, and then eaten. True, they had dried up to a very great extent, and it was found they had lost much of their natural flavour ; but still they were not only eatable but fairly palatable. PARTRIDGES. E 2 PARTRIDGES. IT is hardly necessary to say that there is no sporting anniversary so popular as the First of September, partly because partridge shooting is a pastime which has more followers than any other of our field sports, and partly because the sport itself is, taking all things into con- sideration, the most enjoyable of all connected with the gun. There are three things needed for the perfect success of partridge shooting a good supply of birds, good covert to shoot them in, and fine weather ; but it is not always that the sportsman is fortunate enough to be favoured in all these respects. The weather in one sense he is indifferent to, but he must have a good supply of birds, or otherwise his sport is something like the play of Hamlet, with the part of the Danish prince omitted. But even if he has birds galore his sport is but indifferent and 54 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. his labour most irksome, unless also he has good cover in which to deal with them. Sometimes he has one and not the other ; one year plenty of birds and no cover, and another year vice versa ; and this, after all, is what more or less may be expected, as a wet summer generally is destructive to the young birds, but conducive to super- abundance of green cover, and a dry summer favourable to the birds, but inimical to good cover. Now the year 1879, in which I wrote some of these notes on partridges, was the most unfortunate I ever remember for the partridge shooter, and this is why I have put it on record. The summer of 1861 was one of the wettest years on record, but it was a dry one when compared with 1879. In the last named year there were no birds, and (to use an Hibernicism) no green cover wherein to shoot what there were, for there was hardly a field of corn cut by September, and the green crops, deluged by rain and impoverished for want of sun, were thin and patchy. The stock of birds left at the end of the previous season was above the average, and they did not appear to have suffered so much as might have been expe6led from the intense cold of the following winter. But the nesting season was one of the worst ever known. On all low lying grounds the nests were swamped by hundreds The Partridge Season of 1879. 55 during the almost continuous rain, which, combined with cold wind, caused much destruction among eggs even on the higher lands. There was a slight cessation of wet weather during the hatching time at the end of June, but the young broods which did come off had shortly afterwards to face a succession of downpours and much cold wind ; and so it came to pass that many coveys were entirely obliterated or reduced to very small dimensions, in numerous instances only one or two young birds battling successfully against the adverse influences of the weather. The few coveys found by sportsmen during the first week of September were mainly the second hatchings, and would not be fit game for two or three weeks. With the exception of a few favoured districts, the reports from all quarters were the same, and on all sides was raised the same doleful cry of " No birds." A gentleman, writing to the Times a few days after the opening of the season, gave his experience by quoting statistics of the result of three days' shooting over 4000 acres in Essex as compared with the result of the two previous seasons over the same estate. In 1877, three guns in three days bagged 130 birds ; in 1878, eighty birds ; but on the ist, 2nd, and 3rd of last September, 1879, only thirty, and these all 56 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. old birds. My own experience in Essex and Kent was even sadder than this, for on the ist, in Essex, a friend and myself only got four-and-a-half brace of old birds, and one brace of young ones, as against eighteen brace, mostly of young, in the previous year on the same ground ; and in Kent, on the 4th, we walked for five hours with- out getting a shot over ground, where, at the beginning of the previous season, we put up one or more coveys in almost every field. The year 1879 will long be re- membered as an annus mirabilis for many reasons, and among sportsmen as being practically without any partridge shooting. Indeed, on hundreds of shootings not a gun was fired. Partridges, like grouse, belong to the order of Gallinae, gallinaceous birds or " fowls," which some naturalists term " Rasores " or " Scrapers," from the habit peculiar to most members of scraping the earth in search of food. Macgillivray says that " the only general character dis- tinctive of every species belonging to this group of birds is one derived from the digestive organs. A very large dilation of the oesophagus forming a crop, lying, when distended, on both sides of the neck, and such an enlarge- ment of the caeca as to render their capacity at least half that of the intestine, occur together in no other birds." Natural History of the Partridge. 57 Like the grouse also the partridges belong to the family of the Tetraonidas^ under which comes the sub-family of Perdicinae, " partridges." The members of this sub- family are ornithologically described as having full and heavy bodies, short necks, and short, strong, and slightly curved beaks ; while their heads are small and rather oblong, and their legs short and stout, covered with scales or feathers. They have full, soft compact plumage, generally of grey, brown, and dusky red colours, prettily mottled and blended so as to produce an harmonious effect. The Perdicinae are pretty generally distributed over the world, but occur mostly in warm and temperate climates yet strange to say, there are no true Perdicinas in America. They live on vegetable substances, such as seeds, buds, and the herbaceous parts of plants, but they are also insectivorous. They are of a remarkably timid and retiring disposition, have a strong " whirring " flight, and are specially distinguished for their great powers of running. We have but two species in this country, the common and the French partridge. The common par- tridge is called by some naturalists, among whom may be mentioned Linnaeus, Tetrao perdix> because, as I have said, it belongs to the superior family of the Tetraonidas^ and by others, such as Temminnell and Cuvier, Perdix 58 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. cinerea, or the ash-coloured or grey partridge. Craven assigns another colour in the lines And nut-brown partridges are seen Gliding among the stubble screen. Byron, also, in Canto XIII. of Don Juan, writes : The mellow autumn came, and with it came The promised party, to enjoy its sweets. The corn is cut, the manor full of game ; The pointer ranges, and the sportsman beats In russet jacket lynx-like is his aim ; Full grows his bag, and wonderful his feats. Ah ! nut-brown partridges ! &c. As to the term " Perdix," I felt some considerable etymological difficulty when first writing these notes, nor can I say that I feel altogether clear about it now, though, as in the case of Tetrao, as mentioned in the last chapter, a learned correspondent of The Country kindly came to my assistance. The word " Perdix " is of course the Latin writing of the Greek TrepSij;, and we find the word in some form or other in most languages. It is, for instance, perdrix in French, and in Spanish perdiz ; and I suppose there is little doubt but that our word " partridge/' which in old English was partryche or partrich, is only a variety. But why " Perdix ? " The correspondent in question first suggested that this was another case of onomatopaeia, and that the name was given because it Origin and Meaning of ft Perdix." 59 " savoured of the sound made by the bird's wings when rising." Of course I could not accept this solution of the difficulty ; but it reminds me that I have read or heard that Irish partridges generally spring without uttering any vocal sound, while Scotch coveys shriek with all their might. I wonder whether there are any grounds for this statement. I never shot partridges in Ireland, and therefore I cannot speak of my own knowledge as to their silence or otherwise ; but certainly I never noticed that Scotch partridges were more noisy than English birds when flushed. The correspondent referred to then followed on with the subjoined erudite communication : " According to Planche (Thesauraus linguae graecae), Vendel-Heyl and Alexr. Pillon (Di6lionnaire Complet de la Langue grecque), and Cornelius Schrevelius (Lexicon manuale graeco-latinum), the word is itself a root. The last-named lexicographer does, indeed, offer a half sort of suggestion that it may possibly be derived from all but obsolete 7re/oie/S&> (more likely, in my own opinion, from 7repto/3a&>), to look around, to look sharp, to be on one's guard a word stri6lly applicable to the modern partridge, at least. Having learned so little from the different lexicons I have consulted, it seems useless to have recourse to modern authorities. Nevertheless, not to leave 60 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. a stone unturned, I will question one or two of them. What has Napoleon Laudais to say on the subject? 1 Oiseau de la famille des Alectrides, dont la chair est fort estimee.' So much for his notion of etymology. What say our Italian oracles ? ' Pernice ; uccello di carne squisita.' Now for our English oracles : ' Partridge : from perdix-, French, perdrix, &c., &c., a dainty fowl' (' Universal Etymological Dictionary/ by N. Bailey, suggestion, and connecting it with the vocal utterance of the bird, says: " Ile/oStf, airo rov TrepSew, crepitum ventris edere ; the voice or cry of this bird, resembling the sound, " cacantium et crepitum ventris emittentium" This I must decline to translate, for the same reason that some of the commissioners who investigated the state of the monasteries in Henry VIII.'s time drew up their reports in Latin in preference to English. I suppose I must fall back on the onomatopaeia solution, and believe that " Perdix" represents in some way or other the cry or call of the bird, whether we take that cry as represented 62 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. by "tzick," " tesich," " karr-hay," or " haix." But "yet I am not happy." I am indebted, however, to the cor- respondent for an interesting note on artificial partridge II calls." He says: " An Irish shooter half -gentleman, half-buckeen, half- sportsman, and rather more than half -poacher presented me with a perfect partridge 'call/ which never failed to elicit a response from birds any way near. It consisted of a thimble open at both ends I believe tailors make use of such a thimble ; over one end was securely tied a piece of parchment, through which was passed a horse's hair, well rubbed with resin. When the forefinger and thumb were passed properly down this hair the partridge's cry or call was imitated to the life. I sent the ( call ' to a friend for inspection only, but he forgot to return it." There is little need to attempt to describe The Partridge with his horse-shoe breast, or his horse-shoeless mate ; and this word "mate" reminds me that I should at once pay a tribute to partridges for their stri6l monogamous principles. I am inclined to believe that not only do partridges pair for the season, but that they remain paired till death doth them part, though if either of the perdicine couple becomes widow Haunts of the Partridge. 63 or widower I am not at all sure that they are particular about contracting marriages within the proscribed degrees of consanguinity and affinity. Indeed, it is more than probable that, as partridges keep pretty much to the same ground, the constant inter-marriages, or in-breeding, tends to deteriorate the stock, which would benefit by the occasional introduction of new blood. From of old the timidity of the partridge has been noticed, and Spenser, in his " Fairy Queen," speaks of "the fearefull partridge," but a curious feature in the habits of the bird is the fact that, though a wild shy bird, it selects generally for its haunts the most highly cul- tivated parts of the country, and seems to increase in exact proportion to the care and attention bestowed on tillage of the soil. This is a remarkable circumstance, and, I should think, without parallel in the history of any of the animals indigenous to this or any other country. Some of the best shooting I ever had was in highly cul- tivated market gardens in Essex, within ten miles of London, among " greens," parsnips, carrots, parsley, onions, and asparagus beds. But they thrive well on ordinary farm lands, and also in less uncultivated districts if the soil suits them. Grahame thus writes of the haunts and habits of the bird : 64 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. But let me quit this scene, and bend my way Back to the inland vales, and up the heights (Erst by the plough usurp'd), where now the heath, Thin scattered up and down, blooming begins To re-appear. Stillness, heart-soothing, reigns, Save, now and then, the Partridge's late call ; Featly athwart the ridge she runs, now seen, Now in the furrow hid ; then, screaming, springs, Joined by her mate, and to the grass-field flies ; There, 'neath the blade, rudely she forms Her shallow nest, humble as is the lark's, But thrice more numerous her freckled store. Careful she turns them to her breast, and soft With lightest pressure sits, scarce to be moved ; Yes, she will sit, regardless of the scythe, That nearer, and still nearer, sweep by sweep, Levels the swathe ; bold with a mother's fears, She, faithful to the last, maintains her post, And with her blood sprinkles a deeper red Upon the falling blossoms of the field ; While others of her kind, content to haunt The upland ferny braes remote from man, Behold a plenteous brood burst from the shell, And run ; but soon, poor helpless things, return, And crowd beneath the fond inviting breast, And wings outstretching, quiv'ring with delight, They grow apace ; but still not far they range, Still on their pinions plumes begin to shoot ; Then, by the wary parents led, they dare To skirt the earing crofts ; at last, full-fledged, They try their timorous wings, bending their flight Home to their natal spot, and pant amid the ferns. Oft by the side of sheepfold, on the ground Bared by the frequent hoof, they love to lie And bask. Oh, I could never tire to look On such a scene of peacefulness as this. Nesting of the Partridge. 65 The partridge is indigenous to this country, and may be called a truly national bird, or, as I believe an eminent naturalist has described it, " a veritable autochthon in feathers/' A young cock bird in O6lober or November, when the chestnut " horseshoe " has fully developed on his breast, may vie with almost any other bird in this country for beauty and symmetry. The nest of the partridge, like those of most of the gallinae tribe, is by no means an elaborate affair, being composed of odds and ends of dry rubbish, and sunk in some hollow in the ground. Sometimes nests are found in the cornfields, but more frequently in meadows laid up for hay ; more frequently still, however, in some hedge bank, and strangely enough not seldom very near a public foot path. The eggs, which may be described as of a dull coffee colour or olive, vary from twelve to twenty in number, and are generally hatched within a day or two on one side or other of Midsummer Day. The tenacity with which the hen sits on her eggs is unsur- passed by that of any other bird, and it is by no means an uncommon occurrence for her to fall a vi6lim to the mower's scythe. This is alluded to in Grahame's lines just quoted ; and Mant, who may be called the " Bishop of Birds," has the following : 66 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. Here, as the swarthy mowers pass Slow through the tall and russet grass, In marshall'd rank, from side to side, With circling stroke and measur'd stride, Before the scythe's wide sweeping sway The russet meadows tall array Falls, and the bristly surface straws With the brown swathe's successive rows. Ah, take thy heed, nor on her nest The partridge ill-secur'd molest. Deep in the grass behold her sit ; Reluctant from her couch to flit, Though the stout mower's whistling blade, Incautious, her abode invade, And threaten, 'mid the falling heap, Away herself and brood to sweep. Few birds, too, are more assiduous in their attention to their young, and the manner in which the old ones will pretend to be wounded, and flutter along just in front of their disturber in order to distract his attention from their nest or young brood has often been described. Marwick, in a note to my edition of " White's Selborne," gives the following account : " It is not uncommon to see an old partridge feign itself wounded, and run along on the ground fluttering and crying before either dog or man, to draw them away from its helpless unfledged young ones. I have seen it often, and once in particular, I saw a remarkable instance of the old bird's solicitude to save its brood. As I was hunting with a young pointer, the Protection of her Brood by the Partridge. 67 dog ran on a brood of very small partridges, the old bird cried, fluttered, and ran, stumbling along just before the dog's nose, till she had drawn him to a considerable distance, when she took wing, and flew still further off, but not out of the field ; on this the dog returned to me, near the place the young ones lay concealed in the grass, which the old bird no sooner perceived than she flew back again to us, settled just before the dog's nose again, and, by rolling and stumbling about, drew off his attention from her young, and thus preserved her brood a second time. I have also seen when a kite has been hovering over a covey of young partridges, the old birds fly up at the bird of prey, screaming and fighting with all their might to preserve their brood." This habit of the partridge is a most marvellous instance of instinct, which in this case seems to border very closely on reason. All partridges have recourse to this device when needed, and they all a6l their part most admirably. Jesse gives a very interesting account of partridges saving their eggs from destruction. He says that a gentleman, who was overlooking his ploughman, saw a partridge rise from her nest, almost crushed by the horses' hoofs. Being certain that the next furrow would bury the nest and eggs, he watched for the return of the F 2 68 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. plough from the other side of the field. In the meanwhile the hen, assisted by the cock, succeeded in removing the whole of the eggs, twenty-one in number, a distance of forty yards to a hedgerow, the operation taking twenty minutes. The hen bird resumed incubation, and eventually brought off nineteen young ones. Jesse also states that he knew the case of a farmer who constantly stroked an old bird as she was sitting on her nest. She seemed to have little or no fear, and would peck at his hand as he touched her. Attempts have been made from time to time to reclaim partridges from their wild state and tame them in confine- ment, but very seldom have they succeeded ; and, I believe, there are only two or three instances on record in which they have bred when confined. The hand-reared ones, however, become comparatively domesticated ; and a few years ago I had some in my kitchen garden which, long after they were full grown, would allow anyone to approach within a yard or two of them. Gradually, how- ever, they strayed away to join their wilder brethren in the field. " Scrutator," in his " Practical Lessons on Hunting and Sporting," gives the followfng account of some tame partridges : " A year or two ago," he says, " I reared a brood of partridges which became quite as v__ Domesticated Partridges. 69 tame as pigeons. As the season advanced, the pats, as I used to call them, rambled away occasionally into a neighbouring farmer's stubble fields, from which, not having the exclusive right of shooting there, I was obliged to dislodge them ; and, aided by my setter, their whereabouts was discovered, and the dog, knowing the birds as well as the birds knew the dog, both parties remained stationary until I approached them, when, on desiring the birds to walk home, they trotted on before us, through gates and hedges, chattering as if they thoroughly understood my meaning, but never attempted to take wing until they reached home ; but, fearing at last that they might stray off once too often, I confined them to winter quarters in a large airy room. A neigh- bour, who was one day watching me feeding these birds, which would come round my feet and peck at my shoes, said, 'why don't you eat them, they look fat and plump? ' 1 Eat them ! ' I exclaimed, in astonishment ; l I would rather eat bread and cheese only for a month than kill one of these little pets, which look up to me as their foster-parent.' ): The other species of partridge we have among us is the " French," or as some call it the " Guernsey," par- tridge, Perdix rufa, i.e., red (red legged) partridge. yo Notes on Game and Game Shooting. It is a native of France and southern Europe,, and there is some question as to the date of its introduction here. According to Daniel it was brought over from the Con- tinent in the reign of Charles II., when several pairs were turned out about Windsor forest. Probably, how- ever, there was no stock raised from these birds, and it was not till about sixty or seventy years ago that the red legged species was established in these islands. The account usually given, I believe, is that the Marquis of Hertford and Lord Rendlesham procured some eggs from the Channel Islands, set them under common hens, and when the young birds were reared, turned them out on their estates in Suffolk. It was from here that the breed extended itself into other parts of the country, but it is more than probable that our stock is replenished by birds occasionally finding their way here from the continent, as from time to time they are found on the coast in an exhausted state, which is suggestive of a weary journey over the water for birds which are not made for a long sustained flight. Sportsmen generally would gladly see them exterminated, as they tend to oust our own breed, and to spoil dogs through their persistent refusal to rise, " footing away," as Yarrell says, "before a pointer, like an old cock grouse." They are monogamous ; but, unlike Netting Partridges in Olden Times, 71 the common partridge, they sometimes roost on trees, and it is said that occasionally they build in them. The nest, generally in a hollow on the ground, is like that of the common partridge, and from fourteen to twenty eggs, with reddish-brown spots on a drab ground, is its com- plement. The red is a bolder bird than the common partridge, and more capable of domestication. The beauty of its colouring is well known. Mr. Dougall and other sportsmen and naturalists speak of a smaller species of this bird, which they consider a distinct one, found on the cultivated edges of some Highland moors. It is but little more than a hundred years ago since netting, not shooting, was the ordinary way of securing partridges, and prints are still extant of about that date in which we see the lord of the manor, in his laced hat, tie wig, flapped waistcoat, capacious coat, and high topped boots, riding over the stubble, and directing his servants who draw the net, while the dog, crouching close to earth, patiently submits to be inclosed therein along with the birds. When pointers and guns succeeded springs and nets, as springs and nets had succeeded falconry, it was long before shooting at flying game grew popular with sportsmen, or that they accomplished it with any fair degree of success. In the middle of the eighteenth 72 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. century it was said that in all Norfolk, then famous as a sporting country, there were not more than two sportsmen who could be regarded as good shots. This was, how- ever, largely due to the imperfections of the gunsmith's work. The guns of that day would be fearful engines to a modern eye, terrible in their recoil, cumbrous in their size, awfully heavy, and requiring no little strength merely to pull their triggers. Several seconds invariably elapsed between the pulling of the trigger and the ignition of the priming in its spacious pan, and a bird could fly at least a dozen yards in the time thus occupied. So the small success our forefathers met with in shooting flying game was, after all, hardly a thing to wonder at ; and yet what care they gave to these clumsy, lanky, point-heavy fowling pieces, and how choice they were in selecting them ! How fond they were of the twisted barrels when they were first introduced, and what talk there was of the relative merits of the French " ribbon barrels " and the horseshoe barrels of Madrid, as contrasted with these same twisted English barrels, when they were twisted as they should be by means of anvil and hammers, and not by heat and the vice, as common gun barrels were. Curiously long in the barrels were those old fowl- ing pieces, for it was believed that the distance the shot Modern Means of Partridge Shooting. 73 would go depended upon the length of the tube it traversed before emerging from the muzzle, and the idea that short barrels would carry farther than long ones was at first scouted as a palpable absurdity. But these are things of the past, although amusing enough by way of contrast with things present, which are our immediate concern. Now-a-days, what with the wondrous improvement in our fire-arms, and the corresponding improvement in the shooting of those that carry them, it goes very hard with the " little brown birds," especially at the beginning of the season, when there are hundreds and thousands of men who, with their " pins " and " centre fires," hardly ever miss a bird that gets up within thirty-five or forty yards, and a large contingent with their " choke bores," who make pretty sure of their game between fifty and sixty, and even over that. The poet of partridge shooting a century ago described how The fluttering coveys from the stubble rise, And on swift wing divide the sounding skies, and the comparative accuracy with which The scattering lead pursues the certain sight, And death in thunder overtakes their flight. But John Gay lived in an age when the single barrelled 74 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. fowling piece, with its flint and powder pan, warranted not to go off in damp weather, was looked on as the perfe6lion of an arm of precision, which could never be surpassed, though it was necessary after pulling the trigger to follow the object aimed at for an appreciable number of seconds to ensure a right ultimate direction of the charge, and sportsmen were directed to utter a shrill whistle when a hare got up, so as to make it stop suddenly from fright and offer itself for a quiet pot shot. The birds had a fair enough chance of escape then ; but now swift indeed must be their wings and sharp their small bright eyes, and extra crafty their ways to run the gauntlet of their enemies and escape the table and bread sauce. It might console them to their fate, if they were only capable of philosophic reflections, to .IK itate how large a part they play in our social arrangements. The ancients were greatly governed by the feathered race. Rome was built in obedience to the flight of eagles, and nothing important was ever undertaken in the forum or the camp without first consulting " the birds." But it might sweeten death to the tetrao or the perdix to think how they control the history of a greater empire than that of Rome or Greece, and a patriotic partridge, or a high-spirited cock grouse, might well resign itself to The National Advantage of Partridge Shooting. 75 " number six," with the proud consciousness that the Scotch bird dissolves the Imperial Parliament, and the English bird keeps thousands of Britons at home, and brings back thousands more to spend their money in these islands instead of lavishing it upon foreign hotel keepers and travel. People forget this service ren- dered by the coveys, when they merely count up the number of the slain, and calculate what they are worth as articles of food. The first of September fills all our country houses, and brings the chief holiday of each year to many a hard-worked professional man. The partridge is such a convenient little bird. For grouse one must go far a-field, and beat up mountain side and distant moor- land; to shoot pheasants one must wait till October, and, as with Corinth, it is not the fortune of every man to arrive at the command of moors and covers ; but the partridge is within easy reach of home and purse ; he comes to perfection just when he is most wanted, when the harvest is cleared from the ground and the autumn is young, and rural scenery is at its prettiest. He rears himself, unlike the splendid but costly pheasants, does nobody any harm in the process, subsisting chiefly on insects which hurt the farmer, and berries of the wood- side, and a little shed corn ; and, being wild enough to j6 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. give good sport, he is domesticated enough to live where he is hatched, and be found when he is wanted to fill the bag and grace the table. He is accordingly only too popular for his own peace and profit, and, like other humble adscripti glebde, he pays more than his fair share for the soil on which he exists. An autumn of perpetual alarms, and a precarious winter of long shots, is the heavy price with which even the luckiest bird in the brood buys the quiet immunity of its spring and summer. The advent of September, and the truly English sport with which it is associated, recalls many thousands from foreign travel, the seaside, their yachts, and even grouse moors, to their own houses, or partridge shooting quarters in the English counties ; while from our cities and towns go forth the British shopkeepers, professional men, and others, who have been lucky enough to have got an invitation from some country friend, or possess money enough to rent a little bit of shooting for themselves. From Berwick-on-Tweed, or rather from John O' Groat's House to Land's End, everyone who is able to command a little sport among the birds ("the birds" par excellence of England) takes advantage of it, with the exception of a select few, who remain in their deer forests, or think it unfashionable to shoot partridges till October is well in. Partridge Shooting as a Sport. 77 Great are the anticipations and great the preparations for weeks beforehand, and young and old look forward to the return of a sport which never seems to lose its fresh- ness. But, with such apparently terrible odds against the birds, it may be asked whether partridge shooting is real sport. Yes. Certainly it is pretty sport enough, and fits in charmingly with English rural life and English scenery. And after all the advantages which modern shot-guns give the partridge shooter, it still requires a good sportsman, even over well-stocked ground, to make a good bag. Speaking of sport in a former generation, an old writer says it is "very laborious, requiring perse- verance and a good bottom." The requirements are the same now ; and partridge shooting, to be successful, still demands care, perseverance, and other moral qualities which go to make up a good sportsman. It has also its special charms and attractions, which fully entitle it to be called sport. It may lack the intense excitement of deer- stalking, and some of the pleasurable accessories of grouse shooting, but it is free from what we may call the selfish- ness of the former, and too business like aspect, and, I would even dare to add, monotony of the latter. Par- tridge shooting is exciting enough, the birds being really harder to bring to bag than grouse. Though it is generally 78 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. pursued in districts which have no bold mountain and rock scenery, it is enjoyed amid a variety of aspects of nature not found in the monotony of many moors ; and as each field differs from another in the quality of cover, it requires no little generalship to make a successful day, especially if your bounds are circumscribed, or your beat lies awkwardly in respect to a neighbour's rights. Partridge shooting, too, has a distinctively social aspect ; it is the occasion of gathering of friends in country houses, and of a pleasant mingling of classes in the fields squires, farmers, and labourers all more or less being brought into wholesome contact one with another. To make a good bag is a chief and legitimate object of the sport, but to spend a pleasant day in the fields in glorious autumn weather is by no means, generally speaking, a secondary one. It is a sport, too, in which friends join, by accom- panying the sportsmen, marking the birds, carrying the game, and making themselves generally pleasant and useful. Nor are the ladies without their share in it; they, too, not only give their benediction to sportsmen who do not get up early in the morning (for which, by the way, there is no occasion), but often come into the fields to see a little sport, or join the party at the pic- nic luncheon, for which they have so carefully catered. The Objections to Game Preserving. 79 Without their pleasant presence and aid in carrying out the evening's social programme, a day's partridge shoot- ing would not be complete. Perhaps at no time of the year, even Christmas not excepted, is an English home seen to better advantage, nor hospitality so thoroughly enjoyed, as in the partridge season. A love of sport is inherent in Englishmen, from the deerstalker to the ratcatcher. And it is curious to note the contrast between the universal popularity of field sports and the partial unpopularity of game preserving. In a country like England you cannot have the one without the other. There can really be little more reason against a landowner's keeping partridges and pheasants on his estate than there is against his keeping ducks and chickens. It is only a question of degree. The former require rather more watching, and are consequently rather more of a temptation to the prowling thief ; but it is perfectly well known whose they are, and there is not a poacher in the kingdom now-a-days who pursues his calling under any delusion upon this point. The real reason why shooting and game preserving are exposed to reproaches from 'which fishing and fox hunting are exempt, is the general notion that shooting is a more exclusive amusement than the other two a remnant, 80 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. somehow or other, of the old feudal system, and connected with aristocratic privileges. It is needless to point out how absurd this notion is, and it is possible that if game were legally made property ', something would be done towards removing it. The difficulty of identification has always seemed to be the great obstacle in the way of this measure ; for who is to know when he has lost a covey of partridges, or who is to identify it when found ? Removable or not, however, this prejudice is at the bottom of nearly all that is written or spoken against the game laws. But the partridge shooter may console himself with the reflection that comparatively little of it is directed against himself. It is a sport in which so many people are interested, that it is difficult to invest it with the odium of a class amusement. From the hard working lawyer who rents his 500 or 1000 acres, to the territorial magnate who can shoot over a quarter of a county, sports- men of every calibre are supporters and prote6lors of the partridge. Tenant farmers, where they have the shoot- ing, either indulge in it themselves or make money by letting it to others. Even the parson of the parish, pro- nounced ritualist though he be, has occasionally a shooting jacket among his vestments ; and is not above a walk through the turnips in company with the churchwarden. Advantages of Partridge Shooting. 81 Grouse and pheasants cannot be had without a great deal more money ; snipe, woodcock, and wildfowl without a great deal more time ; and salmon rivers and trout streams are not to be found everywhere. Fox hunting is too expensive for some men, and too decidedly sporting for others ; but partridge shooting costs comparatively little, and it is to be had in all parts of England almost at your own door. The partridge is as familiar to every English rustic as the rook or the wood pigeon ; and partridge shooting is a sport which may be followed very quietly, and for two or three hours at a time, so as not to interfere with other duties, It seems to be a sport, too, which has a remarkable attraction for statesmen. Pitt, Fox, Peel, Palmerston, Lord Althorp, and the late Lord Derby, were all keen partridge shooters, and Lord Eldon's passion for the sport, and the number of birds he missed every time he went out, fill a large space in his biography. If partridge shooting, therefore, should ever lose its high position it will not be for want of interest or connection, and it may with safety be predicted that it has a long lease of life before it yet. To many among us September recalls the memories of our boyish days and our first certificate. The country in that far away time was quieter than it is now. There G 82 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. were fewer railways then, and no machines groaning in the distance like wounded giants. There was more repose about everything ; and a man could go out shoot- ing without that uncomfortable feeling of the public eye being upon him, which attends every action of our lives in the present day. The laudator temporis acti will tell you, too, that the weather was finer then than it is now, with many other pieces of information derogatory to the present age, for which, however, he is often indebted to his imagination rather than his memory. When every allowance is made for the effects of that natural antagonism between modern progress and the sports of the field for which some people contend, par- tridge shooting still remains a popular and healthy exercise ; and, whatever change may have occurred in the seasons, September still remains one of the pleasantest months in the year. The overstrained nerves, the over- wrought brain, and the languid muscles, which regain their proper tone after a week or two of September shooting, should make those among us who look down with contempt on all field sports indulgent to this par- ticular one. Many people cannot undertake pedestrian tours. Mere " constitutionals " every day along the same roads and footpaths soon pall upon a man. And, Dress for Partridge Shooting, 83 besides, for the full restoration of his health, an over- worked man requires some excitement as well as exercise. This can be obtained in no way more easily, more pleasantly, or more conveniently than in partridge shoot- ing. It is the best tonic in the world for those who cannot reach the moors. And, whosoever is in search of that greatest of all blessings, " the sound mind in the sound body," should, if he can handle a gun, lay the offering of his leisure on the shrine of gentle September. And now I shall venture, I hope without giving offence to any brother sportsmen, to indite a few paragraphs of advice and suggestion, which may possibly be of use to some who handle the gun, whether as novices or veterans. First of all, a word about the sportsman's dress, for on this depends much for his comfort through a day's shooting. The covering for the feet is the most important item of all. Innumerable have been the shooting boots invented by enterprising makers during the last ten or fifteen years, with all kinds of fancy and classical and semi -classical names attached to them, and with all kinds of fastenings by means of straps, laces, buckles, and buttons. But, after all, nothing in my opinion beats the old-fashioned laced boots. Let them be of the best prepared leather, which is perfectly waterproof ; let them G2 84 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. be of medium thickness, and not too heavy nor too light in the sole, for both extremes, though for different reasons, add to the distress of walking. Let them fit easily, and be laced just sufficiently tightly to make them feel part, so to speak, of the feet, which must neither be pinched nor be slipping about inside. If the boots have become hard from disuse, they should be softened before wearing. A hard wrinkle in the leather easily mars a day's pleasure. It is impossible to exaggerate the im- portance of comfortable boots. With the reverse a day's shooting is pain and grief. And of almost equal im- portance are the socks ; in fact, they may be looked on as part of the boots. Let them be of wool, not cotton, and be well soaped inside with common yellow soap in a state of paste, with which also the feet themselves may be smeared before putting the socks on. This is the best pre- ventajiive against blistering and chafing better than astringents and will keep the feet soft and even cool all the day. Knee breeches of some light material, full and baggy at the knee, not like hunting cords, but on the principle adopted by the navvies, who tie up their trousers to give the knees full play, should always be worn knickerbockers, in fact, and below them gaiters of leather, or, better still, of coachman's drab cloth, which is fairly Advice to Partridge Shooters. 85 waterproof, will turn thorns, and is of everlasting wear. The legs may be cooler without gaiters, but it is delicate work to get through hedges without them, and they prevent dirt, stones, and various other " foreign sub- stances " getting into the boots and causing annoyance or necessitating the irritating process of unlacing and lacing up again. The shirt should be of flannel there is no exception to this rule and the coat and vest, or better, a Norfolk shooting jacket, of light texture and colour, the wideawake of ditto, or substitute for the latter, a straw hat and puggaree. I am aware this last head gear is rather showy, and considered unsportsmanlike, but I am giving advice to sportsmen with a special view to their comfort and well-being. My next exhortation is not to start very early in the morning. It is all very well for boys with their first certificate To go to bed, and weep for downright sorrow, To think the night must pass before the morrow, and to get up before daybreak, in order to be on the ground in the dim twilight, when the " early birds " are picking up their barley corns or wheat kernels on the dewy stubbles, and making their " morning calls ; " but it is folly for sportsmen out of their teens. Nine o'clock is 86 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. early enough to make a start. The birds have got back into cover by that time and settled down for the day, and before seven in the evening there are hours enough left for making a toil of a pleasure, if anyone wishes to do so. I would say to the sportsman eat a substantial breakfast, look through the morning papers, if you can get them, smoke your cigar or pipe in peace, and wait for the blessing of the ladies on your sport. And now you are off to the " happy hunting grounds." If they are at any great distance, never walk to them if you can ride ; and before commencing proceedings register a few vows and keep them during the day. Let one be, to walk slowly ; otherwise you soon tire yourself and often fail to do justice to your real powers as a marksman. Another, not to be jealous of your companion, or shoot unfairly at his birds, or wrangle over the game killed. 1 My bird, I believe," is often the beginning of a quarrel. Register, too, a vow to keep your temper under all emer- gencies ; do not get angry with your dog, with your keepers, markers, or with yourself. The loss of temper is often the loss of the enjoyment of a day's sport. Register also this vow not to smoke, or drink anything but cold tea (without milk or sugar) before luncheon. Cold tea is more cleansing to the palate, and more refreshing than The Sportsman's Luncheon. 87 any other liquid under the circumstances. Brandy and water and other alcoholic sipping is fatal to after comfort, as is also beer, however pleasant the immediate sensation of a draught of the latter may be. One and all they are heating, and instead of quenching the thirst only provoke it (crescit amor, /.$ timidus. The word Cuniculus, from the Greek KVVLK\OS or K6viK\os, signifies a rabbit or a subterranean passage, a mine or burrow, and it is evident that the animal, from its habit of burrowing, was called by this title. Addison, "On Ancient Medals," says : " There are learned medallists that tell us that the rabbit which you see before her feet [Spain] may signify either the great multitude of these animals that are found in Spain, or perhaps the several mines that are wrought within the bowels of the earth of that country, the Latin word cuniculus signifying either a rabbit or a mine/' We find the word in several languages : For instance, conil in old French, conejo in Spanish, and kanin and kunele in German. Our form of the word is " cony," but at the same time it must be remembered that the " cony " of Scripture is not our rabbit. The Biblical " cony " is really the Syrian hyrax 214 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. (Hebrew shaphan) , a creature which is not even a rodent, but, though small it be, to be classed with the elephant, rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus. There are several varieties of it, but that best known is the South African species, Hyrax capensis familiarly called the " rock rabbit," though in reality not being a rabbit at all. No true rabbit has ever been discovered in Palestine. From the presumedly simple mind of the rabbit we find the old English words >( coney-catcher," a thief or sharper, and " coney-catch," to trick or deceive. " Marry," says a character in Ben Johnson's " Staple of Newes," " I woud ha' the old conicatcher coozened of all he has," and in Shakespeare we read, " Take heed, Signer Baptista, lest you be cony-catched in this business." Our word " rabbit " probably comes from the Latin rapidus (rapid), and was given to the little animal because of his quick, agile movements. It was originally written "robbet, 1 * and we find it in the Dutch robbe, robbeken. The habits and method of life of our common wild rabbits are so well known that it would be out of place for me to attempt to inflict any long account of them on my readers. Their chief characteristic is their prolific- ness, which is proverbial. They breed and multiply as no other living creature, except, possibly, the herring or the Prolificacy of the Rabbit. 215 Pulex orientalisy being actuated by no Malthusian principles. Daniel, in his " Rural Sports/' says that they breed at six weeks, bear seven times annually, and produce five young ones each time. He is more than within the mark in all these particulars ; and the calculation of the produce of a pair of rabbits, including their grand- children, great-grandchildren, and great-great-great, &c., is something astonishing. We have all heard of the marvellous manner in which they have increased in the Australian colonies since they were introduced, the climate and grasses at the Antipodes being peculiarly favourable to the multiplication and development of the Leporidse Family. In many districts they have become a positive nuisance, almost a plague, like locusts elsewhere, and " Rabbit Suppression Bills " have been already passed in some provinces for the protection of the colonists. The " Shire Councils " are empowered to go on private property to destroy them, and all means, fair and foul, are allowed for their destruction, while a heavy fine is imposed on anyone who turns rabbits out loose. It is with the greatest difficulty that ordinary wild rabbits can be domesticated. They pine away when kept in hutches, even though they be obtained for the experiment when quite young. While mentioning this 216 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. fat, it may not be out of place briefly to record a remarkable instance of the tameness and strange ways of a domestic rabbit of a common breed which belonged to my children a few years ago. " Lord de Grey," for so we called him, was about a year old when I bought him, in the spring, at Leadenhall Market, and he very soon evinced a marked desire to be on the most amicable terms with all of us, and especially with my wife. He would always come to the name of " Bunny," and jump on her lap, and, if allowed, go to sleep there ; and frequently he would perch upon her shoulder and lick her face. His great delight was to get on the table after a meal, and, steering clear of the different things on it, pick up all kinds of odds and ends of comestibles. Nothing seemed to come amiss to him, and nothing to disagree with him. He would eat any kind of pudding, and jam tart was a special favourite with him ; and he would drink beer and gravy. He had no fear of any of us, and evidently liked being handled. Nor were cats a terror to him ; indeed' he was rather a terror to them, for he would chase stray ones out of our back garden. When the winter came on, and, as usual, we parted with our colony of rabbits, we made a present of " Lord de Grey " to our poulterer at Bayswater, who promised not to convert him into rabbit Hybrids between Rabbit and Hare. 217 meat. He made great friends with his new owner and his family, and had the run of the shop like a dog, while a great portion of his time was devoted to playing with a cat and her kittens. He used to run in and out of the shop, and pay visits to neighbouring ones. On one of these expeditions, I fear he was picked up, as he dis- appeared, and no tidings were heard of him afterwards. I have often regretted that I parted with him, as I feel sure that with a little trouble he might have been taught many amusing tricks. The question has often been raised as to whether there is such a thing as a cross between the hare and rabbit. So nearly allied are they that such a cross might naturally be expected. But naturalists seem pretty well agreed that there are no well authenticated instances of such hybrids ; certainly not between the common English hare and rabbit. A cross between the Scotch or blue hare and a rabbit would, prima facie, be more likely than one between an English hare and rabbit, for the blue hare partakes more of the character of the rabbit ; and yet such a cross does not seem to be satisfactorily proved, though some French naturalists hold that several so- called "Leporines" are instances of it. Several specimens of alleged crosses have, from time to time, 2i 8 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. been submitted to Mr. Buckland, and other English naturalists, but I believe that in all cases these authorities have come to the conclusion that they were nothing but rabbits. It is, or perhaps I should say, it used to be, held that there were four kinds of wild rabbits, called Warreners, Parkers, Hedgehogs, and Sweethearts. Of the meaning and application of the last term, as applied to rabbits, I must confess my ignorance. The warreners were the animals which, as their name suggests, tenanted the rabbinitical Edens called warrens, especially those on our coasts. The rabbits of the English warrens are larger in size than, and said to be superior in flavour to, those of the Scotch and Irish. The richest and finest warren rabbits are found in the warrens of our eastern coast, extending from Lincolnshire to Berwick-on-Tweed, and they are larger than the rabbits of the west coast of our island : and I have seen it stated that the latter have in many places a decidedly fishy taste. The parker and the hedgehog rabbit have been described as " very much alike/'' frequenting plantations and high inland rocky ground, uniformly smaller than the warren rabbits of the eastern coast of England, but " nearly of the same length and weight as the general run of Scotch and Irish Gambols of Wild Rabbits. 219 rabbits/' But really these are " distinctions without differences." It cannot be truly said that these are " distin6l varieties " of our wild rabbit, though food will cause a temporary difference. It has been found by experiment that warren rabbits removed to a covert, and allowed to breed there, soon assume the same type as the prior inhabitants of the locality. Our wild rabbits are pretty, intelligent little crea- tures, of quick perception, and up to innumerable dodges. There are few more interesting sights than the gambols and frolics of these " nimble-skipping little animals " on a summer's evening, when they congregate just outside a covert to nibble the grass in an adjoining meadow, or to disport themselves in company. If you conceal yourself at the edge of the covert and patiently wait till the alarm caused by your getting into position has subsided, you may watch their antics at leisure, and if your heart is not softened too much by the happy play of the little innocents, you may amuse yourself by taking an occasional shot at them with an air gun. Decidedly the best form of rabbit shooting is with half a dozen to a dozen guns in coverts, and a pack of dogs to " roust " the bunnies about. It is a good plan to ferret the chief burrows and stop as many holes as you can the 22O Notes on Game and Game Shooting. day before or early on the morning of the shooting. But this does not matter so much in February and March, especially if the weather is mild, for then the rabbits are naturally inclined to " sit out" rather than stay at home in their holes. Still, it is well to stop as many holes as possible, for when once a rabbit has reached a burrow it is hardly necessary to say he will not leave it again while the shooting continues. Of course, the proper dogs for hunting the rabbits about are the true rabbit beagles, exquisite little hounds, rare facers of all obstacles, whether furze, thicket, bramble, or fence, never tired, free throwers of their tongues, and charmingly musical. A day's rabbiting is worth joining in, if only to witness these intelligent hounds do their work. But we must more often than not be content with a miscellaneous and improvised pack for our day's sport. The keeper's terriers, of course, are to the fore ; there will be a sprinkling of spaniels, an old retriever, perhaps, or setter or two thrown in, and sometimes the shepherd's dog, who insists on joining in the fun. In fact, generally speaking, the pack is a " mixed lot '' Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound, And curs of low degree are there ; and for all practical purposes they answer the Dogs for Rabbit Shooting. 221 object in hand. The more dogs you have, however, which hunt by scent and not by sight the better. A dog that hunts with his eyes, though he may occasionally secure a rabbit for himself, is not of great use for hunting out rabbits to the gun where the covert is at all thick ; and it often happens that the astute cony with a dog in hot pursuit will squat, let the dog run over him, and then turn back in an opposite direction. If you are wise, you will not use your regular springers or cockers for hunting rabbits, as this, more or less, spoils them for pheasant and cock. The guns are stationed sporadically to command the drives and runs, and the covert is worked methodically, if possible ; but more often than not they are distributed without much order, each selecting, at a fair distance from his neighbour, some fairly open ground, a likely hollow, or commanding knoll ; and, with the dogs let loose, the excitement commences to the heterogeneous music of the pack. Bow-yow-ow-ow-ow, &c., is heard in all sorts of keys and in every direction, as the pack is soon split up and each member is hunting on his own hook. The canine music, or discord, as you like to call it, rises and falls in irregular cadences, sometimes drawing near and sometimes receding from the spot where you are stationed, as the poor bunnies are pressed this way or that by their 222 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. relentless pursuers. You must be patient and observant of eye and ear. Now a bright-eyed timid cuniculus, though not immediately tracked, is on foot, having left his seat in fear, and in hope, too, of withdrawing safely from the hubbub he hears in proximity to him ; he lops along gradually, pricking his ears ; and now he stops within gunshot of you, though often he does not observe you. He is what is called in the vernacular of the art of rabbiting " a listener," and it remains with you to decide whether you shall take a cool pot-shot at him and score one. Now, while you are making up your mind, he is off, to be seen, or at least identified, no more ; and another, with the dreaded yow-ow-ow behind him, is dashing by like lightning within fair distance. Have at him "he who hesitates is lost ; " in a moment you may not have the chance, or only a bad one. Rare good fun, too, is shooting on a well-administered gorse common, which is divided with rides and drives intersecting each other at properly arranged distances. These straight lines of open space, bright with their smooth turf or glittering with frozen snow, give you fair chances as the dogs bustle the rabbits across them. But you must be very quick, as they do not often stop on these to "listen," but dash across them like Rabbit Shooting and Ferreting. 223 " greased lightning ; " and a gorse common rabbit has the credit of travelling faster than those which frequent ordinary coverts. Hedgerow rabbits may be worked with a couple of dogs and one gun, or, at the most, two on each side the hedge ; but the dogs, whatever may be their breed, should be accustomed to the business, and know that it is no use for them to work out of gunshot. For this kind of shooting, too, as many holes as possible should be stopped in the morning before the sport begins. If you have meadows with rough " tussocky n grass and rills in them bordering on the hedges, frequented by rabbits, you will find your quarry sitting out a good deal in the early spring, especially on warm sunny days. You then require a dog which will hunt very close to you ; but you may generally do pretty well by kicking them up with your feet. They at once make for their homes in the hedge bank and afford fair and pretty shots as they try to reach them at full speed. Ferreting is an old established and well recognised method of rabbiting, but it is not to be compared with shooting to beagles, or a miscellaneous pack of dogs. It is, in fa6t, the least lively kind of rabbiting, and very uncertain. However, it is good amusement enough for 224 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. an " off" day, when you have nothing better to do, and especially when the snow is lying on the ground, and the day is frosty and bright. It is a sine qua non that it be a quiet day. If there is much wind or wet the rabbits can hardly be got to "bolt" at all, or at least very sparingly. So obstinate are they at times that they will allow the ferrets to scratch their eyes out and gnaw to their very backbones before moving. Hence some per- sons muzzle their ferrets ; but it is a question whether they work so well when thus treated. But let us suppose a bright, frosty, still morning, with the snow crisp beneath your feet, when, as Keats sings in his "Eve of St. Agnes," "the hare goes limping o'er the frozen ground," while the partridges, tamed by scanty fare, come cowering under the corn ricks like barn door chickens, and the bunnies, happy and brisk as ever, are making themselves snug in the recesses of their burrows. The keeper, or your " jack-of-all-trades," or some local ratcatcher, whom you have engaged for the nonce, is at the door with his boxes or bags of red-eyed ferrets, which, as he handles them, wriggle about like eels ; also the boy with the peg-nets, as perhaps you want a few live rabbits for turning down elsewhere, and another with a couple of spades for digging out ferrets which persist in "laying up" after Rabbit Shooting with Ferrets. 225 having pinned some unfortunate bunny in a cut de sac. All is in readiness, and you sally forth with your posse comitatus, and a steady and dependable retriever at your heels. Now, to ferret a large burrow in a wood or quarry or big bank, and pot the unfortunate rabbits as they quietly steal out of one hole to get into another, is no fun at all ; the only ferreting worthy of the name of sport is that conducted along the hedgerows. A gun at each side is enough, with an additional one, if you like, to " wipe your eye," and if you have two guns at each side, then it is a good plan to arrange for each to fire first alter- nately. Stand close to the hedge, about ten or fifteen yards from where the ferrets are put in, with attendant man and boys behind you, and then " attention " is the word of command. No talking and no stamping of your feet on the ground, or buffeting of your hands, even though your fingers and toes be so cold that you cannot feel them. As when the " pious " /Eneas was about to tell the long story of his woes Conticuere omnes, intentique ora tenebant so it must be now. If a rabbit comes to the mouth of a hole, and sees a man or dog anywhere near, or hears a human or canine voice, it is ten to one he will retreat, Q 226 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. and determine to face " the ills he has" in the way of a ferret at his scut or at some more vulnerable part of his anatomy, than "fly to others he knows not of," or, perhaps more stri6lly speaking, that he does know of. But if all is quiet, and there is nothing to create suspi- cion, he very naturally thinks that the best thing to do is to make a bolt of it, and trust to the chapter of accidents. If you are quiet, you will, even at ten or fifteen yards' distance, have some notice of his intention to bolt ; for you will hear dull, spasmodic subterranean sounds, which gradually grow into a continuous rumble, resembling a miniature earthquake ; the snow heaves, and the earth, as it were, opens, and out shoots Master " Rabbi " from a bolt- ing hole under a hanging bough or big root a hole whose existence you never suspecled, intimately as you fancied you knew the ground. If there is an open, clear ditch on one side of the hedgerow, and the rabbit scuttles away right down it at his best pace, you must be a decent shot to stop him. Nothing is more easily missed than a rabbit under such circumstances, and, consequently, where you do knock over the speedy fugitive, and the impetus on him causes him to turn head over heels two or three times in succession with almost mathematical precision, the performance is an eminently satisfactory one at The Seamy Side of Ferreting. 227 least to the man behind the gun. Your retriever, who has been waiting modestly in the background in an atti- tude of intense observation, with his head cocked slightly on one side, dashes forward to bring back the limp bag of fur, and if you are in a good humour you will pardon the irrepressible terrier whom you have brought with you merely to tell you by his scratchings whether poor bunny is at home at each particular hole, when he, too, rushes headlong to assist the retriever and even dispute the prize with him. He has behaved fairly well hitherto, but now the excitement of the moment has got the better of him. Be merciful to him ; his human superiors not seldomly err in the same line. But, oh! the tediousness and worry of a day's ferreting where the rabbits won't bolt and the ferrets will lie up when time is wasted, patience exhausted, and bad temper engendered. The lying-up of a ferret is the worst business of all. There is the long wearisome waiting till his ferretship designs to make his re-appearance, or the digging him out, which is often as long and wearisome a process, and sometimes owing to big stones or roots of trees next to impossible. In the deep recesses of a big bank he has firmly fixed himself on his prey, on which he will make a hearty meal, and then curl himself up for a Q2 228 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. hearty snooze beyond reach of the spade and excavating operations, and, perhaps if you detach one of the party to mount guard, while the rest go on to the next hole or holes, you may then again meet with a repetition of the annoyance. Sometimes you can get the rabbit out by the aid of a long stout briar, which you twist into his fur till you feel it take a hold, and your ferret will come with it as you gradually and gently haul away ; but more often than not the burrow twists and turns too much for the operation, or the spot you wish to reach is too far off. I have heard it said that when a ferret lays up, if you rip open the belly of a newly-killed rabbit, and push it a little way into the hole on the windward side of the burrow, the fumes of the warm entrails are irresistible to the ferret, and will draw it as if by magic to the scent. I have never tried the experiment, and therefore perhaps I have no right to doubt its success ; but I do, for I can- not conceive why a ferret should leave one really hot rabbit for another to some extent cold. To avoid one special provocation to ferrets to lay up, namely, the presence of young ones in the burrows, you should give up ferreting by the end of February. About the begin- ning of March the young ones generally commence to make their appearance ; and no ferret can be expected Management of Ferrets. 2.29 to do his work properly with a lot of very young rabbits here and there in the burrow, which are generally so paralysed with fear that they become motionless, the moment the ferret makes his appearance. While speaking of ferrets, let me be allowed to put in a plea on their behalf, and crave a little more kindness in their keeping. Few animals are so utterly and cruelly neglected as ferrets, that is, as a general rule, both as regards their quarters and their food. Most persons seem to think that anything is good enough for the poor wretches, putrid meat or filthy offal, while any box, hardly worth the name of a hutch, will do for them to live in. This is a great mistake, and the result is that ferrets suffer from chronic diseases and die off in numbers. They should have milk and bread every day, with an occasional bird or piece of fresh meat, and clean water always at hand ; and their house should have a yard to it. They are naturally cleanly animals, and will never soil their sleeping apartment, which by the way should have clean hay in it, if they have a court or yard attached. This yard should be cleaned, sanded, and have a little lime dusted over it every morning ; and when ferrets are not worked they should have a run occasionally in a field. If these matters were attended to we should not 230 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. hear so much as we do of footrot and other ferret ail- ments, and the little animals would be in better fettle for work. And now a few jottings as to the a6l of shooting the rabbit. Let no one suppose (and probably no one who has had experience does so) that our little friend is easy to knock over. Quite the contrary. Of course a " listener " can be potted by any tyro, as also one which, unconscious of your presence just " loppits " along like a hare taking things easily ; but not so the scared little fellow which darts across a ride or narrow pathway in the wood, or scampers from one bush to another, or rushes helter-skettle down the open ditch by the hedge side, or whom you kick up out of a tuft of rough grass or rills within fifty yards of his burrow in the bank. Under these circumstances he is more nimble than a hare or greyhound for a short distance, and nothing is more easy than to miss him. Many a good hand on the grouse moor or in the partridge field, or who can account for most "rocketing" pheasants within fair reach, is often nonplussed by the agile and subtle Lepus cuniculus, who seems to know instinctively how best to dodge to its own advantage. Men who will kill nine out of ten partridges within forty yards will often miss half the rabbits they Rabbit Shooting. 231 shoot at in a day. They are essentially dodging animals. Somerville, in The Chase > speaks of them as " dodging conies ;" and another writer dilates on their "bouncing and stotting movements" "stotting" being an old Northumbrian word, signifying rebounding. A good rabbit shot is a high wrangler among sportsmen, and I need hardly say that the great secret of success is shooting well ahead. When scuttling down a ditch or running straight away from you your aim must be well over his head ; indeed, you should see a clear space between his head and the mark to which your barrel points, and when running at anything like a right angle to you, you should aim just in front of his nose. How easy to say all this ; but how hard to practise it ! Not allowing sufficiently for the pace at which our game is flying or running, or, in other words, not shooting enough in advance, is the rock on which the majority of sportsmen become shipwreck. Rabbits will carry away an immense deal of shot in their hind quarters, and so tenacious of life are they, and so strong in their desire to get into their holes when wounded, that in their very death struggles they will drag their crippled frames a considerable distance. Warreners tell us that if a wounded and dying rabbit gets into a hole, no living ones will ever pass ; 232 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. they will die first : and thus only half killing a rabbit may cause the death of a score or more in a warren. More- over, if you kill a rabbit by shooting him in the hind quarters, you spoil him more or less for table. In cover shooting you often have to pull trigger more by faith than sight, as a momentary glimpse of your quarry is frequently all that is vouchsafed you. This is how Watt even the humble sport of rabbit shooting has its poet puts it : More difficult than hares to hit, They frequently appear to flit Like shadows past one good indeed Is then the aim which bids them bleed. If you would see them nicely stopped In the thick wood, you must adopt Snap shooting, for you'll seldom there Have time to take them full and fair ; E'en lost to view advance your gun Quickly to where you think they run ; Regard not grass, nor bush, nor briar, Through each and all that instant fire. Bang ! it's well you saw him not And yet you've killed him on the spot. A light short gun is best for the sport in cover, and I think the best sized shot is No. 5. The thick fur coat of a rabbit offers a strong resistance to shot, and unless he hits it in a vital part a good shot can make no certainty of a rabbit much over thirty-five yards. It Rabbit Shooting. 233 has been said with truth that rabbits are harder to kill in the snow than at other times. Whether it is that the snow dazzles their weak eyes, or that they are over excited by the bright and brisk state of the atmosphere, I cannot say ; but certainly they have a way of jumping and bounding and doubling at such times that specially puzzles the gun, and to make matters worse, their quick doubling movement often raises quite a cloud of sparkling snow spray. Altogether rabbit-shooting is good practice, if it does not get you too much into the habit of snap- shooting. It is as bad to give oneself up to snap-shoot- ing as not to be able to take a snap-shot at all. And now I cannot refrain from adding a few remarks on the caution which a sportsman should exercise in rabbit shooting. An incident once befel me in my early days which I shall never forget. A friend and myself were working a hedgerow with a couple of terriers ; the hedge was thick, and I saw a rabbit working about thirty yards ahead of me on the top of the hedge bank, which happened to be a little lower than the spot where I was ; with boyish thoughtlessness I fired ; my friend raised a shout, and I fully thought I had fatally wounded him. It was some relief to find that it was only his retriever I had hit and hit mortally ; but he was only a couple of yards 234 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. behind the dog, and so had a painfully narrow escape. I learnt a lesson which I have never forgotten. How many deplorable accidents have happened through the indis- cretion and over-eagerness of young (and old) rabbit shooters within the last few years I cannot say, but they make up a large total ; while the narrow escapes must be almost innumerable. To take the life or even seriously injure a companion out shooting is almost the saddest event which can happen to one, and fraught with bitter memories to the end of one's days. Under no possible circumstances should a sportsman fire towards a hedge or even low towards the hedge bank. Let this be a golden rule. However fair be the chance offered, and though you may feel absolutely certain that nothing living is at the other side, still observe the rule under all circum- stances. For the sake of a paltry rabbit or a bird, do not risk even the one chance in a thousand of killing, maiming, or blinding for life a human being, or even a horse, a cow, or worthless dog on the other side. If you go out shooting with young fellows, let them fully under- stand, before the work begins, that if the golden rule is broken, either you or they leave the field at once ; and in the case of a boy who is just trying his " 'prentice hand," take his gun away, give him a good box on the ears, The Rabbit ^astronomically considered. 235 and send him home in disgrace, with the understanding that he shall not handle a gun again for the season. Gastronomically, the rabbit is by no means to be despised, as he lends himself to almost as many ways of being treated by the mageiric art as French cooks can deal with an egg. The French, as a rule, do not seem to esteem rabbit flesh very highly, and, I believe, recoil from that of the large mixed breed of animals, which they raise in such large quantities for the English market, with nearly as much horror as a Scotch Highlander does from eels. But on the continent generally the real wild rabbit is valued more highly than among ourselves. Great cooks like Alexis Soyer and Fin Bee maintain that the flesh of a rabbit is better and more fragrant for culinary purposes than that of the chicken. " What is a rabbit?" mysteriously asks Fin Bee in his delightful " Epicure's Year Book " for 1868, a volume of which the suggestive motto is that " Nothing should mar the sober majesties of settled, sweet, Epicurean life." Miss A6lon estimates rabbits as game ; Mrs. Beeton regards them as poultry ; Alexis Soyer reviews their culinary treatment under the head of fowls. Rabbits are not often served whole at the table of Dives, but boiled or roast and smothered in onions they have long been a special 236 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. luxury for Lazarus. In one sense they are eaten by the rich and poor alike ; for the " white soups," and " mul- ligatawney " of the West End, no less than the Sunday pie of Whitechapel, and the least aristocratic parts of South London, owe their ingredients to our " nimble- skipping little animal ; " and one of the greatest landed proprietors of the North of England has described the nature of his sway over his poorer tenants and cottagers as " a mild despotism tempered with rabbits." By the way, how strange it is that the ordinary female domestic servant of the period disdains rabbits (and hares, too, for the matter of that). Can it be that she thinks that by so doing she will be credited with having a taste which indicates that her parentage is higher than generally supposed ? Or, is she influenced by the Levitical law which makes the leporid family unclean, or by a tradi- tion handed down from our British forefathers, who also declined the flesh of rabbits ? Caesar, in his " De Bello Gallico," lib. 5, cap. xii., says : " The inland parts of Britain are inhabited by those whom fame reports to be natives of the soil. They think it unlawful to feed upon hares, pullets, or geese ; yet they breed them up for their diversion and pleasure." These domestic hares, however, there can be little doubt, were large fancy Prejudices against Rabbits. 237 rabbits. We have certainly got over any repugnance which we might once have entertained for " pullets " and " geese," but among the upper classes the domestic fancy rabbit, though it may be fattened up to an excel- lent animal for the table, is hardly ever eaten by them, and the "Ostend" rabbit, under the idea that it is a " tame " species, is equally rejected. In olden days, it is said, so prevalent was a dish of rabbit in some form or other, when salmon and other fish were equally plentiful, that in some country districts servants stipulated with the masters not to have rabbit or fish for dinner oftener than three days a week ; and as a proof that it is possible to have too much of a good thing, the grace said by an old doctor, who had been regaled rather too often on coney meat, may be cited Of rabbits hot, and rabbits cold, Of rabbits young, and rabbits old, Of rabbits tender, and rabbits tough, I thank the Lord, I've had enough. But to pass on. As I am not writing a chapter for a cookery book, I shall not attempt to give or dilate upon the various recipes for the treatment of the wild rabbit. As a general rule, it may be laid down that whatever you can do with a fowl you can do with a rabbit. Boiled rabbit (of course, with onion sauce galore), pulled rabbit, 238 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. stewed rabbit, and fricasseed rabbit are all excellent dishes ; but commend me to a roasted rabbit. I have italicised "roasted/' because "down south" we seldom roast a rabbit, and thus deny ourselves the best way of serving him. I do not mean that any rabbit you may kill or buy at a shop is good for roasting ; for that purpose the animal must be young, and nearly full grown, and June and July are the months for him. Make a stuffing of fat bacon cut up small, the liver and a little suet chopped fine, some bread crumbs, sweet herbs, parsley, pepper and salt, and with this fill the rabbit ; sew up neatly, and roast in front of an open fire, larding it well and basting continuously ; eat with boiled or fried bacon and bread sauce, and I think you will allow that it is an excellent substitute for a young partridge, to which it has a great similarity in taste. In the north of England they very commonly roast rabbits or "pop them in the oven." Gamekeepers' wives are generally adepts at rabbit cooking in various ways, just as Thames fishermen's wives are at dealing with fresh-water fish. (N.B. Don't eat rabbits after the middle of March ; they are getting rank then, just as wild fowls are then losing their flavour ; and let gourmets note that the flesh of a winter rabbit is best during a hard frost.) I have been told by a friend inter- Methods of Cooking Rabbits. 239 ested in such matters that the flavour of rabbits varies according to the soil on which they dwell, but I cannot undertake to endorse this statement. It is, however, but natural that it should vary somewhat according to the nature of the food they eat, and I think there is some truth in the old saying that " the shorter the grass the fatter the rabbit," perhaps also " the sweeter." By the way, in an old book, called the " Country Magazine," dated 1763, and " containing everything necessary for the advantage and pleasures of a country life " (which I bought for a few pence the other day at an old bookstall), I have come across a recipe anent rabbit cooking, which recommends boiling sausages with the rabbits, and, for sauce, melted butter with mustard. A Sussex friend, who by the way, says that young rabbits in that county when first leaving the maternal holes, are called " starters," assures me that the best way of dealing with a young rabbit is to disjoint him and fry the disjecta membra in egg and bread crumbs with a few mushrooms. It is much to be regretted that of late years wild rabbits have risen enormously in price. About fifteen or twenty years ago they could be got, especially in the neighbour- hood of warrens, at 6d. to gd. each. They are now double the price, and often more ; and thus they are dear food 240 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. for the poor. But out of evil may come good, and perhaps the demand for rabbits even at their present price may lead to the extension of rabbit " farming," which has been so often advocated of late. Towards the close of the last century Arthur Young entered into an elaborate computation to prove that a rabbit warren properly conducted was a more lucrative speculation than agriculture could be to a most successful farmer. He traced the history and gave the statistics of a famous Scotch warren, and showed that it returned 29 per cent, per annum to its proprietor. I believe that many warrens now are equally lucrative. Of course no one wishes to see a large stock of rabbits on cultivated land ; they do not pay there, as they more than eat their heads off, and they are the cause of more ill-will and lawsuits among landlords, tenants, and renters of shooting than anything else. But there are thousands and tens of thousands of acres of waste land, which, notwithstanding the foolish ravings of agrarian agitators " of the baser sort/' are incapable of cultivation, along our coasts and inland, admirably adapted for rabbit farms. Mr. Grantley Berkeley says we eat 30,000 tons of rabbit food per annum in this country, and, if I remember rightly, Lord Malmesbury, in a debate in the House of Lords some few Rabbit Farming. 241 years ago, put the calculation higher than this, reckoning that thirty million rabbits, i.e., nearly one per head of the population of England, Scotland, and Wales, were annually consumed by us. With rabbits at half, or, say, two-thirds, their present price, the demand would increase enormously, and there would be ample profit for rabbit farmers. I wish someone would seriously take this matter up as a branch of the national food supply ques- tion ; and I am convinced that a Rabbit Farming Com- pany, starting with sufficient capital, might be made one of the most lucrative ventures of modern days. I should like also to see the experiment of mixing some of our tame rabbits with the warreners more largely tried. The prolificness of our wild rabbits would not, I think, be diminished, while we should gain in size: Those who eat "Ostend" rabbits now would eat our own Ostenders. At the same time, warrens for pure wild rabbits should be maintained and developed. By the way, the "tinned" rabbits from various parts of Australia are by no means bad food. The best brands are to be got from Mr. John M'Call, of 137, Houndsditch, E., and those who have not experimented on them will do well to do so. Space fails me to say much on the subject of rabbit law, which, unfortunately, is still somewhat hazy, not- R 242 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. withstanding the many decisions which have been given in our courts of law. In olden days rabbiting was a much esteemed sport in its various branches ; and in the reign of James I. he who would indulge in it had to prove his possession of hereditaments of the yearly value of 40, or to be worth 200 in goods, or have an inclosed warren worth 403. a year. " In good King Charlie's merry days, when loyalty no harm meant/' severe laws were ena6led for the protection of the rabbit ; and in the reign of George I. rabbit poaching was a felony, to be dealt with " without benefit of clergy." The law now in reference to rabbits as, indeed, to many matters connected with our field sports seems in a state of con- fusion ; and certainly Lepus cuniculus has fallen from his high estate, being looked upon as little better than " vermin." He gets some protection, however, under the Trespass A6ls, and it would be a matter of regret if he were altogether outlawed. From a national point of view, in connection with his contributions to our food supply, and affording many a pleasant day's sport, we cannot yet afford to lose our humble little rabbit ; what, however, will ultimately become of our Leporidae in these happy islands remains to be seen. As I was con- cluding these Leporidal jottings the " Hares and Rabbit Rabbit Farming. 243 Bill," introduced by the Home Secretary to the new Liberal Government of 1 880, was being discussed. Let us hope that, whatever measures are ultimately decided upon, they will take such a reasonable form that they will not involve the extinction of all " fur." The Govern- ment Bill, as drafted and proposed to the House of Commons in May, 1880, hardly satisfied any party, either in or out of the House. If it were carried in its original form, it needs no great power of prophecy to predict that it would cause more ill-feeling than do all the rest of the Game Laws now existing. To say nothing of its proposed interference with the " rights of contract" in giving an "inalienable right" to tenants to destroy all ground game, it would set class against class, and turn many a peaceful village into a very land of discord. It was said that a large landed proprietor in Yorkshire had determined, in the event of the Bill passing, to exercise his right, and at once put on a regiment of men to destroy all hares and rabbits on his tenants' holdings ; and having thus freed the occupiers of the so-called " intolerable nuisance," he would proceed to recoup himself for the loss of his pleasure of shooting by raising the rents ten per cent. This, of course, might have been a mere threat, but it is R 2 244 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. an evidence of the feeling that was stirred up by the proposal of the Government. Perhaps a way may be found of getting out of the difficulty ; but as matters now stand the sport of shooting generally in this country is threatened, and hares and rabbits particularly singled out for destruction. QUAILS. QUAILS. THOUGH Quails are to some extent protected by our Game Laws, they are not generally recognised as game in the ordinary acceptation of the word. Still they are always prized by sportsmen, and in themselves are very interesting little birds. The Quail is classed by naturalists in the Order of Gallinae, and belongs to the Tetraonidae or grouse family, and to the sub-family of Perdicince, which consists of it and the partridge. Its Latin name is Coturnix, and Communis is added to it to distinguish the common European quail from other varieties. It is called also Perdix Coturnix ; and, from its migratory habits, the " Wandering " quail. Thus sings one of the poets : Whither away, O thou wandering quail ? Whither away o'er the wide wild seas ? Hear'st thou a voice from some Persian vale ? Hear'st thou a caU from the Cyclades ? 248 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. The quail is certainly a very pretty and intelligent looking bird, and bears a strong resemblance to the partridge, though generally of lighter marking. It is plump and round bodied, with the head set closely on the shoulders, and in size it is a little larger than a blackbird or thrush. The wings are pressed closely to the body, and the tail is pointed, very short and directed down- wards, so that it almost appears to be absent, and the bird seems to be more plump than really is the case. Plumpness, however, is its distinguishing feature, and hence the name by which the Arabs call it, saliva or selaw, which signifies plumpness or fatness. Biblical scholars have called attention to the fa6l that this word is almost exactly the Hebrew word seldv, which in our version is translated " quail " wherever it occurs, and they have no doubt that the common quail is the bird mentioned as supplying food to the Israelites in the desert. The Rev. J. G. Wood goes as far as to say that we need not look on the supply as specially miraculous, considering the numbers and habits of these birds. Unlike their congeners, the partridges, quails are certainly polygamous. The nests of those which breed in this country are generally found among wheat, clover, or long grass, and are mere hollows in the ground, lined Natural History of the Quail. 249 with dry herbage of various kinds. The eggs, from seven to twelve in number, are white, tinged with a yellowish red, blotched or speckled with brown. The female sits upon them three weeks, and the young follow her as soon as they leave the shell, feeding at once on seeds, inserts, and green herbage. As all sportsmen know, a brood of quails is called a " bevy." We have all read in our ichthyological studies how eels are produced from short lengths of horsehair thrown in the water, and pike from the pickerel weed growing therein ; but these are very simple operations of nature compared with the ornithological account given of the generation of quails by an antiquarian many years ago. He says: "When there are great storms upon the coasts of Libya, the sea casts up great tunnies upon the store, and these breed worms for fourteen days, by which they grow to be as big as flies ; then as locusts ; which, being augmented in bigness, become birds called quails." These interesting facts may be useful to the Darwinians ! But before proceeding further I must indulge, as is my wont, in a few etymological remarks. The word " quail " is found in different forms in several languages, caille, for instance, in the French, and quaglia> in Italian. It is said that the term was given to the bird " from the noise 250 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. it makes." The same is said of the origin of the Latin appellation Coturnix which is represented as another case of onomatopoeia. I fail to recognise the appropriate- ness of this onomatopoeia in either case, as the shrill piping note is generally represented by verru-verru, followed by pee-voi-ree several times repeated. But the cries and calls of animals sound very differently to different ears ; and with this safe remark I must leave the matter. The ancient British name of the bird seems to have been " Sofliar." From Plautus we find that the Eomans of this time used the word Coturnix as a term of endear- ment ; but our ancestors many years ago seem to have employed the word " quail " to represent courtesans " so called because the quail was thought to be a very amorous bird." The home of the quail may be said to be the districts adjoining and the islands in the Mediterranean sea, through which they circulate, as it were, in their partial migrations. Their numbers at times in some parts are almost incredible, especially on the North Coast of Africa and in Egypt. Temminck tells us that on the coast of Naples 1 00,000 have been captured in a single day, and that within a comparatively limited space. Such large quantities used to be captured formerly in the Island of Methods of Capturing Quails. 251 Capri, near Naples, at the commencement of the autumn, that the Bishop derived from them the chief part of the revenue, and was called in consequence by the profane "The Bishop of Quails." Pliny tells us that they some- times alighted on vessels in the Mediterranean in such prodigious numbers as to sink them. We certainly do not hear of such marine catastrophes in these days, but still there is no lack of quails in their old habitats. The Rev. J. G. Wood, in his " Bible Animals," gives some interesting details of methods still employed in the East for capturing them. One very simple plan is for the hunters to select a spot on which the birds are assembled, and to ride or walk round them in a large circle, or rather in a constantly diminishing spiral. The birds are by this process driven closer and closer together, until at the last they are packed in such masses that a net can be thrown over them, and a great number captured in it. Sometimes a party of hunters unite to take the quails, and employ a similar manoeuvre, except that, instead of merely walking round the quails, they approach simultaneously from opposite points, and then circle round them until the birds are supposed to be sufficiently packed. At a given signal they all converge upon the 252 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. terrified birds, and then take them by thousands at a time. In Northern Africa these birds are captured in a very similar fashion. As soon as notice is given that a flight of quails has settled, all the men of the village turn out with their great burnouses or cloaks. Making choice of some spot as a centre, where a quantity of brushwood grows or is laid down, the men surround it on all sides, and move slowly towards it, spreading their cloaks in their outstretched hands, and flapping them like the wings of huge birds. Indeed, when a man is seen from a little distance performing this a6l he looks more like a huge bat than a human being. As the men gradually converge upon the brushwood, the quails naturally run towards it for shelter, and at last they all creep under the treach- erous shade. Still holding their outspread cloaks in their extended hands, the hunters suddenly run to the brush- wood, fling their cloaks over it, and so enclose the birds in a trap from which they cannot escape. Much care is required in this method of hunting, lest the birds should take to flight, and so escape. The circle is therefore made of very great size, and the men who com- pose it advance so slowly that the quails prefer to use their legs rather than their wings, and do not think of The Note of the Quail. 253 flight until their enemies are so close upon them that their safest course appears to be to take refuge in the brushwood. Boys catch quails in various traps and springes, the most ingenious of which is a kind of trap, the door of which overbalances itself by the weight of the bird. By reason of the colour of the quail, and its inveterate habit of keeping close to the ground, it easily escapes observation, and even the most practised eye can scarcely distinguish a single bird, though there may be hundreds within a very small compass. Fortunately for the hunters, and unfortunately for itself, it betrays its presence by its shrill whistling note, which it frequently utters, and which is so peculiar that it will at once direct the hunter to his prey. This note is at the same time the call of the male to the female, and a challenge to its own sex. Hence the use of the quail-call, or quail-pipe, which we read of as employed many generations ago. In Chaucer we find the lines : And high shoes knopped with dagges, That frouncen like a quail-pipe. Ray, on " The Creation," says : " Hen birds, for example, have a peculiar sort of voice when they would call the male, which is so eminent in quails, that it is taken 254 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. notice of by men, who, by counterfeiting this voice with a quail-pipe, easily draw the cocks into their snares." In Beaumont and Fletcher's " Humorous Lieutenant" we have another reference to these pipes : CELIA : Master, my royal sir, do you hear who calls you ? Love, my Demetrius ! LEONTIUS : These are pretty quail-pipes ; the cock will crow anon. A writer in the Illustrated News, some few years ago, remarking that the quails sold in London market were generally males, said : " The reason why they are so is simply this : the males, in flocks, precede by several days the arrival of the females, and, like sailors from a long voyage, meet with crimps ashore. Nets are prepared, the quail-pipe imitating the low note of the female is heard, the male utters his clear whistling trisyllable ' pee-voi- ree ' by way of answering ; and in this manner scores at a time are drawn into the trap." And he adds, " The story has a moral, so it be read aright." Bishop Mant also speaks of the quail-pipe in the following lines : Less likely of your aim to fail, If with loud call the whistling quail Attract you, 'mid the bladed wheat To spread the skilful snare, and cheat With mimick sounds his amorous ear, Intent the female's cry to hear. The habit of the quail, already alluded to, of lying Quails at Malta. 255 very close, seems long ago to have given rise to a kind of proverb, as we find Chaucer, in " The Clerk's Tale/' using the expression " couche as doth a quaille." This habit troubles the sportsman at times, but it also involves the bird in difficulties, as a curious mode of its capture in Malta witnesses. In that island, during the months of April and May, when the quail are making their way northward from Africa to Europe, and in the month of September and October, when they are on their return journey, a great number of birds take a temporary rest, and a couple of guns can often bag as many as twenty brace in a day. It frequently happens when the dogs, called " smell- dogs," which are a kind of low and thick- set pointer, draw upon a bird, it will creep against a stone wall, and allow itself to be taken with the hand ; but generally it lies very close, and so near the nose of the " smell-dog" that some sporting Maltese use a casting net, and, throwing it over the dog, capture the quail at the same time. It is a curious fa6l that in the spring the birds are seldom observed to arrive at Malta in the daytime, and, therefore, it may be concluded that their migratory flights are executed at night. On arrival they are flat and plump, and are doubtless sustained when on the wing by internal nourishment ; but after a 266 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. few days detention on the island through winds unfavour- able to their flight, they become weak and poor in flesh, finding little or no food to keep up their condition. The theory that birds are supported during their flights by absorbing the superabundance of fatty matter which has accumulated just before the migratory season, will over- come some difficulties with regard to the mysteries of bird migration. Contrasting the migratory habits of the quail with the stay-at-home habits of his congener, the partridge, a modern versifier says of the latter : No fondness has he for exploring the earth, Contented to live in the land of his birth. And adds : But his cousin, the quail, quite a different being, A thorough Bohemian, is all for sight-seeing : One week he's in Europe, in Africa next, By no change of latitude ever perplexed ; A true Cosmopolitan, he has no ties Of country or climate the world is his prize. As the sunflower aye to the sun turns its face, So follows he southward the sun hi her race. No bird of its kind has such wide range as he ; Europe, Africa, Asia, the Heathen Chinee All give him warm welcome ; he finds a fit home Where'er for the nonce he may happen to roam. By many naturalists it is supposed that the quail changes its place of abode, not as most other migrants Quails in England. 267 do on account of climate, but in order to obtain sufficient food. I can hardly agree with this theory, but it said to have been tested in various ways ; and perhaps the best proof of its truth is a story related by Yarrell to this effect. In the year 1844, when the harvest was almost as back- ward as it was in the memorable wet year, 1879, there was, according to credible witnesses, a field of barley in Devonshire still uncut in the month of December, and several quails remained in it till the end of the year, when it was carried during a sharp frost. The French have a proverb to the effect, that "a year of straw is a year of quails/' and this, in the year just mentioned, was justified by the event, as, in addition to the birds which came over in the ordinary way in April and bred in France, a large flight passed over the country, north- wards, early in July, and many remained to fall victims to the gun when partridge shooting commenced. Quails begin to arrive in this country towards the latter end of April or the beginning of May, and to leave us, generally speaking, early in October. They are seldom seen after the middle of that month. A certain number breed with us, and 1 have seen bevies in Devonshire, Cambridgeshire, Gloucestershire, and other counties. Many years ago, in the Cambridgeshire fens and rough S 268 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. land, they bred in considerable numbers, and the London market, I am told, was then supplied mainly from that district. But this source of supply failed long ago. However, as far as I can gather from reports from various localities, and from what I have personally observed, I am inclined to think that the number of breeding birds has increased during the last ten years or so. In the year 1879 there were an unusually large number of nests in north and east Devon, and I was glad to hear that sportsmen generally in those districts refrained from shooting the young birds, in the hope that the stock would be permanently increased. A writer in the New Sporting Magazine some time ago said that formerly the Isle of Thanet, in Kent, was celebrated as abounding in quails at all seasons, and that sportsmen from all parts resorted to this locality for quail shooting; but these happy days are not in the recollection of any living sportsmen. The southern districts of England are most affected by the quail, and they decrease in number as we go northwards. They are occasionally found in Scotland, even as far north as Aberdeenshire, but I fancy that of late years not so many are met with north of the Tweed as was the case formerly. A few birds remain with us during the winter, for, as Yarrell says, " though the quail Importation of Quails. 269 has usually been considered a summer visitor, so many instances have occured of its remaining in winter as to make it appear that a portion of them do not return southward in autumn." Of late years the importation of quails into this country for table purposes has assumed large dimensions. They come chiefly from Egypt and Italy, the first arrivals being dated about the first week in March, just at a time when there is little in the way of bird-flesh as a table delicacy. The supply in 1879 was larger than ever, more than 500,000 having been consigned to Leadenhall Market alone. Ordinary sized quails weigh about 302. each, and these sell on an average, at Leadenhall, wholesale, for about gs. a dozen, but larger and fuller birds up to 5oz. fetch about double that price. Housekeepers who buy them retail at the poulterers may, therefore, realize the great profit which is made by these tradesmen. Still smaller birds may be bought wholesale at 6s. or 73. a dozen, and I often wonder that owners of shooting in districts suitable for them do not take more advantage of their cheap rate and purchase birds for turning down. With a little expense and perseverance, I am inclined to think they would establish themselves on many shootings, remaining during the winter, and breeding in the next S2 270 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. season. As I have already said, though but " small deer/' quails are always most welcome additions to the sportsman's bag, especially as they require some skill to- bring down, their rising being very sudden, and their flight very low and quick. But to return for a moment to their importation. They are sent to this country in low boxes or cages, containing about 100 birds in each, pretty closely packed together, and in these they are kept, both in Leadenhall Market and at the retail poulterers. Some kindly natured" persons consider this a very cruel method of dealing with these tender looking little birds, but in reality it is not. They like warmth, and this they get by being huddled together ; and as they feed most heartily on the hemp and millet provided for them, and get fat thereon, it may be taken for granted that they are by no means unhappy during their cage life. Moreover, if they had greater space allowed them, and more head room, they would fight with one another so pertinaciously that in a few hours there would be little more left of them than of the famous Kilkenny cats. In Leadenhall they are kept in the shallow boxes, packed tier above tier in the rooms of the houses in and adjoining the market, and there feed and fatten in quiet, as least as far as quiet can be obtained i Pugnacity of the Quail. 271 amid the scraping of thousands of feet in the cages. I paid a visit to one of these quail colonies one season, a visit more interesting than pleasant, as this scraping noise was very jarring to the ear, while the strange, hot, sickly odour which emanated from the multitude of birds was the very reverse of agreeable. Speaking of the pugnacity of the quail, there is an old Greek proverb, which runs, " As quarrelsome as quails in a cage ; " and among the ancients quail-fighting seems to have been as favourite an amusement as cock-fighting was at one time in this country. Indeed, to the present time Eastern potentates indulge in quail-fighting, the birds selected for the purpose being fed on stimulating food in order to make them more pugnacious than they are by nature. The modern versifier whom I quoted above credits the Chinese with being given to this cruel sport Pugnacious as gamecock, the Chinese delighting, As erst did the ancients, we're told, in quail-fighting. Though not provided with such weapons of offence as are some of the members of the Gal linos order, the com- bativeness of the quail is undeniable, especially at the breeding season. There have existed some curious ideas from time to 272 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. time concerning the flesh of quails. The ancients are said not to have eaten it, because, as Pliny tells us, "They supposed it to feed on hellebore and poisonous seeds and to be subject to epilepsy/' Sir T. Elyot, in his " Castle of Helth," says, " Quayles, although they be of some men commended, yet experience proueth them to increase melancolye, and are of small nourisshinge." However, some ancients did eat them, the Israelites to wit ; and they are eaten largely in the East now ; and when the numbers caught are too great to be eaten fresh, they are split and laid out to dry in the sun, just as the Israelites are said to have spread out the selavim (quails) ." all abroad for themselves round about the camp." Craven says that the quail " is the daintiest of eating." And he is quite right. I hardly know what metropolitan gourmets would do now without their quail in the spring and summer months ; and without them housekeepers and chefs would often be at their wit's end to provide some toothsome morsel to enter on the concluding portion of their menus. WOODCOCKS. WOODCOCKS. As the shooting season advances it assumes different aspects familiar to sportsmen, and each is acceptable to them in its turn. Let us suppose that we have now come to November, which bears an evil character meteorologi- cally. Of old it has been called " dreary" and " dark," and the poets have poured out the vials of their melancholy upon it. Tom Hood expended no little ingenuity in de- scribing its negative aspect No sun no moon ! No morn no noon No dawn no dusk no proper time of day And so on, with an infinity of " noes/' concluding with No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease No comfortable feel in any member No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no birds November ! 2j6 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. But, after all, abuse November as some will, it 'is a month to which thousands of sportsmen in all directions look forward with pleasure, and enjoy thoroughly when it comes. With it the hunting season sets in ; with it begins the best fishing of the year for certain of the scaly tribes of our rivers and still waters ; and with it, too, the most enjoyable to the true sportsman of our different kinds of shooting. It is, par excellence, the month for shooting snipe and woodcock, than which no birds come more acceptably to hand, and therefore, as I suggested in my opening chapter, it might well be called "woodcock or snipe month. " To deal with woodcocks in something like order and method, let my first note be ornithological. A very interesting bird is the woodcock, called by our Anglo- Saxon forefathers Wuducocc or Wudecoc. His ornitho- logical name is Scolopax rusticolaj and he is rightly so titled. He belongs to the Scolopacin^e or snipe family, which is a sub-family of the Scolopalidas, the " long- bills." " Scolopax " (2tfoXo7ra) is derived from the Greek ovewXo? or ovcoXo-^, both of which signify " a sharp- pointed stake;" and, as he loves the woods, "Rusticola," i.e., " wood-haunter," aptly distinguishes him from his first cousin the snipe, who shrinks from anything like Plumage of the Woodcock. 277 thick cover, except when a very sharp frost drives him into turnip fields or similar shelter. I am aware that Rusticola strictly means a " dweller in the country" but when Linnaeus invented it, and gave it as a title to the woodcock, I think he had the idea of " wood J; in his mind, otherwise it would not be a distinguishing title, for the snipe (Scolopax gallinago] dwells in the " country " as much as the woodcock. Like most of our indigenous birds and summer and winter visitants, the woodcock is of sombre colour, but he is unquestionably one of the most prettily marked birds we have, for though his plumage is sober and subdued like that of the partridge, the delicate pencillings and mottling of his feathers are very beautiful, while a velvet-like softness of appearance pervades his whole body. How difficult it is to describe a bird's plumage ! It may be said that that of the woodcock is charmingly varied with black and ash colour, white, grey, and red- brown, rufous and yellow, marbled, spotted, barred, streaked, and variegated, and with the different colours so disposed in rows, and crossed and broken at intervals by lines and marks of different shapes, that the bird appears at a little distance like the withered stalks and ferns, the moss-covered and lichen-dotted sticks and grasses, 278 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. by which he is sheltered in his lone retreats. You may sometimes stalk a woodcock and have a good look at him ; but it is only a practised sportsman who can discover him by his full dark eye and his glossy silver-white tipped tail. Being a soft-fleshed bird and delicately put together, his beauty soon disappears after being carried in a pocket or game bag or packed for market. Our old dramatist, Ben Jonson, compares the head and bill of the woodcock to the bowl and stem of a pipe, and he takes occasion from the resemblance to have a sly hit at tobacco smokers. Thus, in " Every Man in his Humour" we have this dialogue : FASTED. Will your ladyship take any ? SARROLINA. O peace, I pray thee ! I love not the breath of the wood- cock's head. FAS. Meaning my head, lady ? SAR. Not altogether so, sir ; but as it were fatal to their follies that think to grace themselves with taking tobacco, when they want better entertainment ; you see your pipe bears the true form of a woodcock's head. FAS. O rare similitude ! Another old writer says that the woodcock, in conse- quence of the backward position of its large eyes, " has a singularly stupid air, in conformity with its habits." I beg respectfully to demur to both clauses of this state- ment, as the bird, at least in my opinion, is neither Intelligence of the Woodcock. 279 stupid in appearance nor wanting in intelligence in his manner of life. That he is somewhat easily taken in gins, snares, traps, and nets, is a fact ; but so are many other birds possessing a repute for much more astuteness than the old writer accords to the woodcock. In Beau- mont and Fletcher's " Wit Without Money " we have Isabella saying Oh Cupid ! What pretty gins thou hast to halter woodcocks ! and in another place If I loved you not, I would laugh at you, and see you Run you neck into the noose, and cry " A woodcock." But it was the high market value, even generations ago, which woodcocks commanded, rather than because they were less wide-awake than many other birds, that caused a large number to be taken by a variety of devices. I hold, then, that it was a libel on the bird in former days to call a " simpleton " a woodcock. The bird has large eyes, certainly, full and dark. But in this respect he is only like many other nocturnal birds, which are asleep, or at least inactive and quiescent, when ordinary birds are up and doing, and -vice versa; and it may be added, that the backward position of the eyes is a beautiful provision of nature to save them from hurt when the bill 280 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. is buried deep in the soft earth, and also to enable the bird to see enemies approaching a tergo. Moreover, the eyes are particularly constructed for colle&ing the faint rays of light in the darkened vales and sequestered wood- lands during its nocturnal excursions ; and thus the bird avoids hitting itself against trees and other obstacles which oppose themselves in its flight. It must not, however, be supposed that the woodcock relies to any great extent on his eyes in his search for food supplies, for the simple reason that almost all his food is out of sight, more or less deep down in the soft earth which he searches with his bill. It is on this wondrous instrument the birds depend to find their favourite food. The nerves in their bills, like those of the duck tribe, are very numerous. The upper mandible, which measures about 3in., is furrowed nearly its whole length, and projects somewhat at the tip, thus slightly overhanging the lower one. It is evidently susceptible of the finest feeling, and admirably adapted for searching the earth for worms and other inse6ls, and also for turning over fallen leaves in quest of odds and ends of food. Woodcocks in confinement have been known to discover and draw forth every worm in the ground, which had been dug up in order to enable them to probe it with Habits of the Woodcock. 281 their bills ; and it has also been found that in confine- ment they will, after a time, take kindly to bread and milk. In the daytime they secrete themselves in the woods under bushes and evergreens, the holly, as most sportsmen know, being their favourite hiding place ; and at night, punctual almost to a minute, they seek their soft spongy feeding grounds. Bishop Mant thus happily describes the habits of the bird: The marsh his nightly haunt ; the wood Within its secret solitude, Which on the kind their name bestows, Supplies their place of day's repose, Where moss-grown runnels oozing well Through bushy glen or hollow dell ; There rest they, till the closing day The signal gives to seek their prey, Where the long worm and shrouded fly Close in their marshy burrows lie ; Then issue forth by Nature's power, To banquet through the midnight hour, Till the grey dawn their ardour daunt, And warn them to their woodland haunt, Mysterious Power ! which guides by night, Through the dark wood th' illumin'd sight, Which prompts them by unerring smell The appointed prey's abode to tell, Bore with long bill the invested mould, And feel, and from the secret hold Dislodge the reptile spoil ! In these happy islands there is no woodcock shooting 282 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. to be got, such as at different seasons of the year some other countries afford, notably on the sunny shores of the Mediterranean ; nor is the bird common enough in many localities for parties to lay themselves out exclusively for a day's cock shooting, as they do for a day with the partridges or pheasants. Still there are districts in Scotland, Wales, and especially in Ireland, where at certain times good bags may be made, and along our southern coast, too, a fair number of cock may occa- sionally be picked up. Years ago certain limited areas probably held more cocks than they do new, and some wonderful days' sport are on record. Even as late as 1863 a single gun killed no less than 245 birds in eight days' shooting in the Killarney district ; but it may be questioned whether this or any other district in the three kingdoms has of late years ever been well enough supplied with birds as to enable such an exploit as the above to be performed. Not that the sum total of the annual migration of cock to this country is less than it used to be ; for, on the contrary, it is really increasing each year ; and certainly the year 1878-9 was one of the best woodcock seasons ever known. In recent years the birds on their arrival seem to have distributed themselves more widely over the country than was their habit Woodcock Breeding in England. 283 formerly ; and thus, though some distri6ls are not so well off as they used to be, cock shooting generally has improved. It is an undoubted fa6l, too, which all sports- men and naturalists will hail with satisfaction, that there is a considerable increase in the number of woodcock which remain in this country throughout the year and rear their young with us. In 1878 reports from Sussex, a favourite county with cock, from the Forest of Dean, and various districts of Scotland, show that there were more nests in those localities than had been known in any previous season. And this number is likely, I think, to show still further increase under the protection afforded by recent legislation to wild birds and wild fowl during the breeding season. Thus, though snipe shooting seems to show a continuous falling off year after year, owing to the continuous increase of draining operations, woodcock shooting is decidedly looking up, to the delight of most sportsmen, who would sooner bag a cock than any bird which flies. Before, however, proceeding to deal with woodcock shooting as a sport, I would add a few more remarks in reference to woodcock ornithologically. It is generally held that two, if not more, varieties of this bird visit our shores, but I must confess I have always found a difficulty T 284 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. in distinguishing them ; and, perhaps, after all, the dif- ferences in the plumage are to be accounted for by the fact that the birds come to us from such an extensive range of country, and not because the birds are distin6l varieties. Dr. Latham laid it down that we have three varieties ; he says : " In the first the head is of a pale red, body white, and the wings brown ; the second is of a dun or rather cream colour ; and the third is of a pure white." But the last named certainly cannot be taken as a distinct variety, any more than a white lark or pied rook would be. A pure white woodcock has undoubtedly been seen, but is only to be accounted a lusus naturae. Another authority recognises only two varieties, dis- tinguished more by difference in size than in marking, the larger birds arriving in this country before the smaller. Mr. Daniel has observed that the earlier arrivals have their heads " muffled " to some extent with short feathers, especially the under parts. Other naturalists, again, have pointed out that the legs of the larger cock are of a greyish tint, inclining to rose colour, while the legs of the smaller birds are blue. Another view held by some is to the effect that the larger birds are the females and the smaller the males. Thus there seems to be considerable disagreement among Varieties of the Woodcock. 285 ornithologists in reference to the varieties of woodcock, and it is a matter on which further investigation appears to be needed. The statement that the large birds are females and the smaller males will certainly not hold water; nor will the theory that the sex of the birds may be known by certain markings in the plumage. Mr. Pennant held that in the hen bird the sex was shown by a narrow strip of white along the lower part of the exterior veil of the feather, the same feather in the male being spotted regularly with black and white ; but dissection, by which, of course, the sex is easily ascer- tained, has disproved this view. Perhaps I lay myself open to the charge of ignorance when I say that, taking all things into consideration, I am inclined to hold that there is but one distinct species of woodcock which visits these islands, notwithstanding the considerable difference in the size of different birds, and considerable- difference in plumage. The average weight of wood- cock may be put at about twelve ounces, but birds of fourteen ounces, and even more, are not very uncom- mon, and Yarrell mentions much higher weights still. It is not often that one finds a woodcock's nest. It is made on the bare ground, at the foot of a bank or near the root or stump of a decayed tree, generally T2 286 Note's on Game and Game Shooting. about the margins of thickets, but sometimes in more open localities. It is very carelessly formed of leaves, grass, and dried fibres. Four eggs is the general com- plement, but sometimes five. They are about the size of pigeons' eggs, and of a " blunt pear-shape." It is very difficult to describe their colour, but " yellowish brown, blotched with brown of a darker shade/' or " rusty green, with dusky, ill-defined spots," or, again, " yellowish white, with reddish brown spots," all come near enough. The female bird, when disturbed during incubation, or after she has hatched, will occasionally assume an imperfect flight, after the manner of a partridge, pretending to be crippled, in order to lead the intruder to follow her away from the nest or young. The young generally leave the nest as soon as they have broken the shell, but the parent continues to attend *to them till they can shift for themselves. If taken young they are extremely difficult to rear, though they will eat worms freely enough. It is an undoubtedly established fact that the female will carry her young a considerable distance in her claws, resorting to this when their haunt has been disturbed. I once saw, or at least I thought I saw, this operation performed. It was in one of Sir Thomas Acland's woods in Devon- Woodcocks and their Young. 287 shire, and in a small open glade a woodcock got up within eight or ten yards of me. I had an excellent view of the bird, and perceived she was carrying something. I hardly had time to think on the matter before she was too far for accurate observation, but on reflection I came to the conclusion that she had one of her young in her claws. I felt more confirmed in this when a few minutes afterwards I found her nest. It was tenantless ; but I have no doubt but that the rest of the young birds were not very far off, and that after I had passed on the alarmed mother returned and carried them one after another to the spot where she had deposited the first. Speaking of woodcocks' nests, I am reminded of a female bird being photographed on her nest in May, 1879. A gentleman of Skipness, in Argyllshire, having been informed by his keeper that he knew of one sitting on four eggs, he immediately accompanied him to the spot, and they both watched it within a few yards for several minutes. On the following day the gentleman went again with a photographic camera, and exposed three plates, the lens being within six feet of the bird, and the front leg of the stand within two. On endeavouring to get a fourth view the bird rose the wonder being that she had not risen before. How- 288 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. ever, she returned and successfully hatched off her young in a few days. Perhaps this is among the most novel uses to which the camera has yet been put, and is suggestive of its more extensive application with a view to illustrate natural history. As to the migrations of woodcock. This is a subject which, like the question of the varieties of woodcock already mentioned, requires much greater elucidation than it has yet received. Read a dozen or more authors who deal with this topic, and you will hardly find two who will thoroughly agree together as to whence our im- migrants come, and whither they go when they leave us. I am inclined to think this difference of opinion arises from the ignorance or forgetfulness of writers that the woodcock is one of the most widely distributed of birds over the whole world, and that he is everywhere an emigrating bird, without so fixed a principle or instinct as to his movements as many other birds have. He is constantly shifting his residence ; and probably an individual woodcock, if he escapes the gun, visits many parts of the world in the course of three or four years in his peregrinations. I mean that he does not oscillate regularly between two countries, but goes a sort of round, a " grand tour," though of course he observes The Native Country of the Woodcock. 289 certain seasons for his movements. In Europe, the Alps, Pyrenees, and other lofty mountain distri6ls, hold large numbers of cock during the summer, whence they descend into the regions below in the winter. Some of these birds very probably find their way to our shores ; and doubtless we have birds come to us in considerable numbers from France and Germany, in both of which countries few cock remain during, the winter. Thus we are supplied to some extent by a migration from the south. But without doubt most of our woodcock are members of a migration from the north, from Norway and Sweden, and the coast of the Baltic. Bishop Mant, whom I have already quoted, speaks of the woodcock as Fresh from the Baltic's sounding shores ; and Gisborne in like manner poetises the migration of the bird : The woodcock, she, who in Norweigan dells, Or birchen glades Lapponian, near the swamp, Sucked from the spongy soil the prey, to cheer Her russet young ; till winter's icy car On summer's step close pressing, from her realm Warned her- That a large number come from Sweden is certain, as the time of their appearance and disappearance in that country coincides exactly with that of their arrival in and departure from Great Britain. It is strange, therefore, 2go Notes on Game and Game Shooting. that the majority of the birds arrive on our southern and not eastern coasts ; but such is the case, and the probable explanation of it is that their flight from the north, or, rather, north-east, is influenced by the circular or semi- circular currents of wind, the birds making their journey in the form of a curve. The migration of the woodcock is spread over a con- siderable period, beginning generally with the first week in October and extending till the middle or even end of December. The October arrivals are but few ; the great bulk come in November, and in December the migration, or, as I should say rather, immigration, slackens con- siderably. The birds come sometimes when it is just getting dusk, but more generally in the night, or when the weather is dull and misty, and consequently it is but very seldom that an arrival is observed. It is the wind and not the moon which determines the time of their coming, and in this respect they are unlike their first cousins, the snipe, who almost invariably reach us about the full of the moon. The woodcock never come in large flights, like the majority of wildfowl or other birds, but separately, and dispersed in twos and threes. They sometimes settle on vessels at sea, and, like other migratory birds, being attracted by the glare of light, The Arrival of Woodcock. 291 are often killed by flying against lighthouses. Their flight must be extremely rapid and strong, for it is on record that in 1797, at the lighthouse upon the Hill of Howth, one broke a pane of plate glass more than three- eighths of an inch thick. The bird was picked up on the balcony outside, and was found to have broken its bill, head, breast bone, and both wings. On their arrival they are in a more or less exhausted state, and rest at once very near the shore. Occasionally they have been picked up in the streets of towns near the coast, for instance, at Rye, Sussex. A few days suffice to recruit their strength, and some betake themselves to the coverts within a moderate distance of the shore, while others are content with more open ground, and lie in the brushwood, furze, hedges, or any temporary cover. The poet puts it thus : When first he comes From his long journey o'er th' unfriendly main, With weary wing the woodcock drops him down, Impatient for repose, on the bare cliffs ; Thence with short flight the nearest cover seeks, Low copse or straggling furze, till the deep woods Invite him to take up his fixed abode. But in the earlier part of the season a very large number, especially if the weather is temperate, soon make their way to high lying moors and bleak mountainous parts 292 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. of the country. Thus, in Devonshire, Dartmoor is a favourite residence for the early cock, and capital sport may be had in that region, particularly in the neighbour- hood of Widdecombe-in-the-Moor. When, however, frost sets in and snow begins to fall they leave such dis- tricts for more sheltered spots, and thus they become dis- tributed among the woods best suited to them. It is noticed that year after year their choice of covers is the same, some being more in favour than others, while some seem altogether shunned by the birds ; and all this with- out any special reasons that we can ascertain. Certain it is that some woods, even very small ones, seem always to hold cock, and some hardly ever, though, as far as we can see, the circumstances of both are alike. In long continued and severe frosts woodcock desert their inland retreats, and go to woods and cliffs near the sea, their reason for doing so being the fa6l that they can obtain no food except on the sands and marshes, which are not much affected by the frost in consequence of the influx and reflux of the salt water. This habit of the woodcock the poet has also noticed : The woodcock then Forsakes the barren woods, forsakes the meads, And southward wings his way, by Nature taught To seek once more the cliffs that overhang The murmuring main. The Migration of Woodcock. 293 When, however, the frost is over they again reseek the inland coverts. In March they gradually gather along the coasts, and await in the neighbouring woods a favourable wind to assist them in their flight to other lands. They are observed, too, to migrate in pairs, the birds having mated before they leave us. I will conclude these memoranda concerning the migration of woodcock by once more putting on record the habit of a Devonshire parson " of the old sort," who was very partial to cock, both from a sporting and gas- tronomic view. In the month of November, on a certain Sunday after Trinity, he used to make his way after the afternoon service to a favourite covert, just inside which he concealed himself, gun in hand, to have a shot at the woodcock, knowing from experience year after year that an arrival would take place about twilight. It is said that he never failed to get his first cock of the season. He called that particular Sunday " Woodcock Sunday." In connection with the migrations of the bird a curious tradition once existed, and, for aught I know, exists still, in some woodcock districts. According to an old writer (Phillips, I believe) their early arrival and late tarriance in our islands denoted good crops in the following 294 Notes on Game and Game Shooting, autumn, and consequently ought to be a subject of general thankfulness. Thus he put it : The woodcock's early visit, and abode For long continuance in our temperate clime Fortells a liberal harvest. I shall certainly not commit myself to an endorsement of this belief, but must leave it to ornithologists and agriculturists to collect statistics in order to determine the truth or untruth of the tradition, but I must confess that it seems to me just about as reliable as the various traditional signs of hard winters and hot summers which have been current for generations, and the logical connection between Tenterden Steeple and the Goodwin Sands. And now I come to that part of my subject which will probably be more interesting to sportsmen who prefer bagging woodcock to reading about or investigating the nature and migrations of the bird, however interesting these may be. When a large party is out shooting, and woods are beaten with mathematical precision, with the regular accompaniment of beaters and dogs, each sportsman must keep the line and his place, and take his chance with the rest in obtaining a shot at a cock, as he does at a pheasant, hare, or rabbit. Any special Tactics of Woodcock Shooting. 295 knowledge he may have of the habits of the woodcock, the likely places to find him and so forth, are but of little use to him under these circumstances. It is otherwise when the party is a small one, say when from two to four guns go out with the intention of working specially for woodcock, and the beating is not carried out in a strictly methodical manner. Each sportsman shoots at anything, and everything indeed, that gets up in the way of fur and feather that is an acceptable addition to the bag, but woodcock is the main obje6l, and each gun is anxious to make the best score in this particular line. It is then that the knowledge of the woodcock's habits the "where to find him " even before the "how to shoot him " will stand the sportsman in good stead ; and he who knows most about the ways of the bird and the nature of the ground to be shot over will be the most likely, provided he is as good a shot as his companions, to secure the most cocks. As woodcock affecl: particular covers in preference to others, so do they affecl; particular spots in these covers. They are particularly fastidious as to their tastes, being very critical as to soil, water, temperature, and shelter. For instance, on one side of a valley they may be found in goodly numbers, while on the opposite, which to ordinary observers presents no 296 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. special difference, hardly a bird is ever to be found. They love dense feathery coverts, where a profusion of springs brim over in shallow rivulets that run soaking through the roots of the grass and looping themselves in miniature lagoons with sandy or gravelly margins. But at the same time their standing ground itself, or sleeping ground, as perhaps it may be called, during the day is dry, for, unlike their congeners the snipe, they do not care to stand long on moist soil. Expect them, there- fore, on sound ground close by moist. Note, also, that they particularly affe6l the cover of holly and juniper bushes, laurels, and rhododendrons, and, generally speak- ing, evergreens rather than leafless bushes or trees over their heads. The reason of this probably is that thick and varnished leaves prevent the radiation of heat from the soil, and being less affected by the refrigerating influence of a clear sky, they afford a comparatively warm and cosy shelter for the birds. But, per contra, it has been observed that cock are partial to the cover of an oak tree, among the fallen leaves of which they are fond of inserting their bills, though it is not quite certain what they find on them or under them to eat. Perhaps they "noozle" among them merely in order to keep their bills in a proper condition of polish, The Haunts of the Woodcock. 297 or by the way of passing the time between their naps during the daylight hours. In a covert the cock are generally found on the sunny side, and particularly on banks facing the south-east ; but, strange to say, that when found in heather, of which they are very fond as a shelter, the very reverse is almost invariably observed to be the case. While mentioning heather, a curious fact may be noticed, viz., that a peat bog burnt in patches seems to be an irresistible attraction to these birds. Note, also, that in the early part of a frost cock will often be found in the ditches just outside coverts, and there, too, they will often settle after being flushed in covert. My first experience with woodcock in Devonshire was on the outside of coverts at the beginning of a frost. We found them in the ditches fairly plentiful, but hardly a bird inside the woods. Naturally enough this first expe- rience made an impression on my memory. It is a great thing to know your country, and observe from year to year the particular spots the birds frequent. Old hands, well up in the local geography of the coverts, have an immense advantage over strangers in a day's stroll after cock. There are certain spots in certain coverts where, if there are any cocks in the country, one is almost sure to be found ; and it is a remarkable fact that if you kill 298 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. a bird out of such a spot one day, another is almost bound to be found there on the next. Woodcock, like large trout, are solitary creatures, affecting particular, well defined haunts, and a vacancy made is almost invariably filled up within twenty-four hours. When the cock shooting party is a large one, and extensive woods have to be beaten, the regular para- phernalia for a day in the covers is necessary beaters, markers, and dogs. The work, too, must be carried out methodically, as I have already said, and a regularly digested plan of operations must be previously arranged before each cover is entered, and all parties concerned must minutely carry out the instructions given them, whether as gunners or attendants. All must take their stations at the spots indicated, advance only at the pre- concerted signals, and pay attention to each others' signs and movements. Such a methodical day's shooting is not, indeed, to my mind, half so enjoyable as one when the guns number only three or four, and the attendants (say) half-a-dozen, and the woods are com- paratively small ; but we must take things as we find them in this imperfe6l world, where it is evident we cannot always have our own way. But whether the party be large or small, one thing is certain, viz., that Beating for Woodcock. 299 you cannot beat too closely for woodcock. Neither guns nor beaters should be in a hurry, and the dogs, whether they are spaniels, setters, working retrievers, or of any other class, should be well in hand and know their business, the grand desideratum of course being that no dog should flush a bird without a gun being within reach. Perhaps of all dogs a true Sussex spaniel has the best nose for a cock. He certainly expresses a very intense sense of canine joy when he touches on the trail of the longbill. Markers are of essential service. They should be placed on coigns of vantage wherever available, and in trees overlooking the top of the cover. A man so placed, if he keeps a good look-out, will be enabled to mark every cock that tops the trees, which is a great thing, as they often pitch in improbable places which few would think of beating. In summing up one's past experience with cock, and endeavouring to recolle6l what one has observed as to their ways and habits when flushed, it becomes almost impossible to write methodically of them. I will, therefore, just jot them down as they come into my head. Cock, at times, lie very close indeed, and are difficult to flush, whereas on some days they are very easily put up. Generally speaking, they lie very u 300 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. close before being flushed for the first time in the day, and many a one is left behind, owing to the guns, the beaters, and the dogs being too eager to press forward. They will often, too, lie close for the second and even the third time. On being flushed in a wood their general habit is to make for the clearest opening and get above the tops of the trees, over which they skim in a straight line before pitching in another part of the cover. Some- times, however, they make a tortuous flight and drop in very near the same spot whence they were flushed. They have been frequently noticed also to fly round a wood as if in search for a safe retreat, and then cunningly hasten back and pitch in the very spot recently left. Manoeuvres of this kind are inherent in woodcock, though, as I have noted, he has been credited with being a silly bird. To act as a marker for a few days would give a sports- man a knowledge of the habits and flights of woodcocks which would be of great service to him. No one ever saw a cock entangled in the boughs or bushes when rising, however suddenly he may have been disturbed. He seems to remember in a moment where his opening is. I fancy I have observed woodcock on rising designedly put a big tree between themselves and the gun with a view to safety, They frequently, at the instant of alight- Marking down Woodcock. 301 ing, run several yards from the spot where they are marked down. They often pitch on the outside borders of a cover or in the boundary ditches, especially if the beaters are a very noisy party. The regularity and sameness of the flight of the cock is very remarkable. They appear as familiar with all dire6l openings and glades in the woods they frequent as if they had used them for years. Day after day, and week after week, on being flushed, they fly off by the same route, through the same glades, and over the tops of the same trees. Even in the open their line of flight does not vary 2oyds. They appear to have certain retreats and certain roads leading to and from them. Perhaps these remarks may seem a little at variance with some I have made before ; but I dare say most of my readers will follow me, and distinguish between what I say of the habits of the cock generally, and their occasional variation from them. A sportsman cannot be too well posted in all such matters, and he who is well up in them has considerable advantage over those who have not cultivated the habit of observa- tion, and so have failed to acquire that knowledge which would often be very useful to them. But, after all, be it remembered there is a great deal of uncertainty about woodcock, as the weather of a few days U2 302 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. previous to the shooting has a great influence on their ways and habits. For instance, after a very stormy night they will lie particularly close, but after a very bright frosty one they seem particularly wary. They are most difficult of approach during a thaw. In a frost they will not only lie outside the woods, as already noticed, but abandon their usual haunts altogether, and be found scattered under hedgerows, in dry ditches, in orchards, and even in gardens close to houses. And now for the " how to shoot him." Is the wood- cock a difficult or easy bird to hit ? And, on what principle should a sportsman endeavour to deal with him? I think that, generally speaking, a woodcock is a fairly easy bird to bring to bag ; and those who are entitled to be called good " all-round" shots I do not mean absolutely "dead" shots as a rule account for a cock if they get anything like a fair chance at him. In open ground, and rocky districts where there is but little bush, and what cover there is is low, for instance, on Dartmoor, especially in the neighbourhood of Widdecombe, where, as I have already said, there is generally good cock shooting early in the season, the birds get up leisurely and fly steadily, thus presenting an easy enough shot to the average sportsman. A still more easy shot do they present when Shooting Woodcock. 303 they rise out of a ditch by a cover side. They then generally fly straight away for some distance along the ditch, working their wings apparently almost as heavily and lazily as a barn owl or a heron, almost giving one the idea that they were not in the least hurry to get out of shot. Under such circumstances a mere tyro in the use of the gun, if he be not flurried at the apparition of the much-to-be-desired scolopax } ought to make sure of his bird. It was under such circumstances, I well remem- ber, that I got my first, and, indeed, second, third, and fourth woodcock, by the side of the covers between Haldon and Luscombe, which lies at the back of that prettiest of little English watering places, Dawlish, in south Devon. I had never before seen a woodcock on the wing, and I must confess that I shot at the first without really knowing what the bird was, the idea of its being a cock not entering my head. I shot merely out of curiosity at a bird with which I was unfamiliar, and which flopped away in so apparently unconcerned a style. My day's experience in killing four cock, the three others rising as quietly, flying as leisurely, and presenting as easy a shot as the first, gave me an impression that there was no bird, among those which sportsmen wish to secure, more easy to kill than a woodcock. But this impression 304 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. did not last long ; for, during the same season, it only required a very little experience in Sir Thomas Acland's thick covers near Broadclyst, and in other parts of the fair land of the west, to show me that a woodcock, especially in a closely timbered wood, often presents the most difficult shot of any bird that flies. The truth is, that no birds vary their flight so much as woodcock, according to the surroundings of the spot from which they are sprung, the state of the weather, and, indeed, many other circumstances, some of which I shall incidentally notice, still making my observations in a haphazard and unmethodical way. They are very uncertain birds, too, as regards the length of their flight, some days flying slowly and lazily, and to a short distance only, while on others they fly straight away when clear of cover to a long distance and quite out of marking range. The rate of speed at which they will fly is very uncertain, for sometimes, as I have said, their movements are slow and laboured, as it were ; sometimes they are twisting, dart- ing, and dodging; while sometimes also a heavy lazy flight is suddenly changed within a few yards into one of surprising swiftness. Woodcock have much greater power of wing than many persons suppose, though they don't always show Flight of the Woodcock. 305 it. In fa6l their flight is sometimes like that of an owl, anon that of a hawk, anon that of a twisting, turning, zigzagging, snipe. Next to the occasions when they rise out of a ditch by the edge of a cover, the fairest shot woodcock present is when they get above the trees of a wood, for then their flight is generally steady, though quick, and by firing more or less in advance of the bird, according to the rate of its flight, an average marksman ought to bag at least three out of four ; but it is not often that such shots can be obtained, at least by the guns in cover. The outside guns have the best opportunities in this respe6l. In high bare-stemmed larch or fir woods a good chance is given the gun when the bird has got above the low undergrowth but has not reached the branches of the trees ; but such woods, with what may be called a clear space for a shot, are not often to be met with, and when they are, the clear space, as I have called it, is intersected with the stems of the trees, and I have already given our game the credit of dodging delibe- rately behind these and designedly putting them between the gun and his cockship. I have in my memory a par- ticular instance of this. Of course it may have been an undesigned coincidence, but I sprung a cock within a few yards of my feet, far too close to shoot at him, so I 306 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. gave him law. The spot was fairly open, and only a few trees within fifteen to thirty yards, and these, with one exception, with slight stems. The exception was a sturdy oak about twenty yards off, and to this the cock flew so straight, that he seemed as if he intended to dash himself against it, but, quick as lightning, when within a foot or less of it, as far as I could judge, he performed a semicircle and I saw him no more. I shall always believe that he made for this tree deliberately, and keeping the line in his mind, took care that it should be between me and him till he was "lost to sight/' though by no means "to memory dear/' I ought to have fired just before he got to the oak, and it was my fault, not his, that I did not. Taking all things into consideration, I think the best advice to a sportsman in cover is to shoot as quickly at a cock as he can take a snap shot in fact on the very first opportunity, i.e., of course after the bird, if it has risen very close to him, has got to something like a legitimate shooting distance. Some sportsmen (but very few) can afford to wait a little on some occasions ; but they must have an exceptionally good eye and percep- tion for the opening for which the cock is likely to make. As a general rule, in nine cases out of ten, if you wait for a really good chance, you may not get one at all. The Woodcock Shooting in Covers. 307 versifier has put the matter about rightly when he says : Where woodcocks dodge, there distance knows no laws ; Necessity admits no room for pause. Let a sportsman note, too, that each successive time the same cock is flushed, though it will generally lie the closer, the more rapid and snipe-like will be his flight. Another habit of the rock, which a sportsman may remember to his advantage occasionally, is his tendency to fly against the wind, if there is enough of it in cover to be felt, when he is being hunted by a dog down wind. The sportsman, therefore, when he notices a dog on the trail, may often be well advised to stand still in a fairly open spot, and wait in the hopes that the bird, when sprung, will make towards him. It may be also well to remember that a cock, when shot dead, is often hard to find, as few dogs can hit off the body-scent of a dead bird when it has not moved from the place where it fell. It is said, but I cannot endorse the statement from per- sonal experience, that a Newfoundland dog is most serviceable in retrieving cock, as he has the credit of marking with wonderful accuracy of eye where a bird falls. For woodcock shooting in covers I mean in woods it is well that the gun should be as short as possible, say 308 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. 28in. in the barrels, or less, if you can get a shorter weapon you can rely upon. The size of the shot you should use depends on the general character of the shoot- ing, whether you are working almost exclusively for cock, and expecting little else, or whether pheasants, hares, rabbits, and other odds and ends are likely to be the more numerous, and are all being worked for. In the latter case, No. 4 or 5 shot is best employed. I prefer the latter, as when you do flush a cock you have a little better chance of getting him with it, and it does not disfigure him so much as No. 4. If you are expecting more cock than anything else, and are even inclined to let other things go unheeded, rather than lose a shot at a cock after having discharged both your barrels, then No. 6 is quite large enough ; No. 7 is perhaps the best size ; and even No. 8 will account for a cock at 40 yds. Like a snipe, a woodcock does not require very hard hitting to bring him down, and the more " corns " sent after him the better. Taking all "things into consideration, No. 6 is the most serviceable size for a day's shooting, as, practically, it suits almost anything in the way of fur or feather. A friend of mine when out for a day's mis- cellaneous cover shooting, and a fair supply of wood- cock may be expected, always has No. 4 in one barrel Shot for Woodcock Shooting. 309 for pheasants, hares, &c., and No. 7 in the other, which he reserves entirely for woodcock. I often follow a similar plan when snipe shooting over a tract where duck, widgeon, and other larger game may get up, having No. 8 and No. 5 or 4 in my respective barrels, and I have often found the advantage of it. It has, I believe, been argued, that having to consider which trigger to pull steadies the shooter ; but I doubt it ; it sometimes sadly confuses him, unless he has thoroughly habituated himself to the practice. At all events, generally speaking, on snipe ground he can pay more attention to his gun, and keep himself more collected than he can in cover, where the walking is more difficult, and more obstacles are in the way. I therefore do not follow my friend's example in cover shooting, nor would I advise young sportsman to adopt it, though I know he makes his practice pay, in generally getting more than his share of cock. Most rightly has woodcock shooting been extolled for many generations of sportsmen, and well has it been termed "the fox-hunting of shooting/' for as chasing the fox is more pleasurable and more exciting, and a higher class of sport than following the tame deer or the timid hare, so is woodcock shooting i.e., a really good 310 Notes on Game and Game Shooting. day's shooting, when the beating is almost or altogether exclusively for cock far beyond a day with the grouse, the partridges, or the pheasants. And even when the day is a miscellaneous one the cocks are more eagerly desired and more highly prized than all the other denizens of our woods and coverts put together ; and when the bag is turned out the head of cock is more carefully counted than all the other contents. 1 think it is Colonel Hawker who says that a real good sportsman feels more gratified by flushing and killing a woodcock, or even a few snipe, than by bags full of game that have been reared on his own or neighbour's estate. Quite right ; there may not be much logic in this feeling, but it may fairly be accounted for by the fa6l that a sportsman considers woodcock as creatures/ 6 IVERSITY OF GUIFOflKIA IIBRARV OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CUIFOIU ^ > 73 = ----- 3ITY OF CUIfORKU UBRRY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CS HE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF C