perhaps, a brace of retrievers, to the very small gratification of any genuine sportsman. However, the good shots, when invited on these occasions, are generally forthcoming; it's a change, and the opportunity of exhibiting their skill is afforded.

The general mode of proceeding is to collect the best and most crack shots of the neighbourhood, bad shots being scrupulously avoided, as well as those who kill their game too near, and thereby render it unfit for the market, as these battues are generally a matter of business as well as pleasure. These being assembled, the covers are driven, by a number of men and boys, up to particular points, at which the guns are placed in line, and as there is generally a net round the cover, and in different directions through it, so as to divide the beats, with perhaps a small outlet to the last beat, the sport is tolerably divided, and shots are generally secured at all sorts of game which the cover affords, and immense slaughter effected.

Pheasants, from their indisposition to rise and their predisposition to run, generally proceed towards the guns so soon as the least noise takes place in cover; but few rise till they are driven into close quarters by the beaters, and compelled to take wing in self-defence. If there were no nets to stop them, almost every pheasant would run out of the cover, and few shots be had, as it is

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a singular fact, that when pheasants reach a net which is only a yard high, instead of flying over it, as they might easily do, after having made a few fruitless attempts to get through it, they return towards the beaters. Some few of the old cocks, who have had the good fortune to survive a few battues," hop over the nets with the agility of a greyhound, and make their escape as fast as their legs will carry them. Their fate is, however, very possibly merely postponed to the end of the day, when the "grand finale" takes place at some thick corner of the wood, with a deep ditch round it, into which these old fellows have skulked, with several of their equally old and cunning companions, to undergo their final ordeal, as there is generally some desperate work just at last.

Some, however, must escape, more birds frequently rising at the same time than can be shot at even by a dozen guns, and many escape during the loading, as on these occasions no man is allowed more than one gun, merely to obviate the danger which might arise from changing guns in the hurry of the moment. Many of these conclusions of a "battue have often struck me as resembling the finale of the fireworks at Vauxhall. Sometimes, if there be a thick piece of turnips adjoining the cover, this will afford one excellent beat at the end of the day.

One gun may have an excellent day's sport with

one old steady pointer, on the day succeeding a battue, in the vicinity of the cover, if there be any good turnip fields or hedgerows. Those who have large preserves of pheasants object to their covers being beaten, or in any way disturbed, more than once or twice during the season, and hence the necessity of a "battue." There is some reason in this, as no bird is more easily disturbed than a pheasant, or who strays further without immediately returning, so that it would be a very losing game to disturb large covers frequently, merely for the sport of one or two guns; but still there are always parts in every cover, where a couple of guns, with one steady pointer, or with a good retriever without a pointer, might have sport without much disturbing the cover or driving the game away: but this will depend entirely on circumstances, and on the relative position of the cover.

If a cover be full of hares, and in the midst of an open country, where the tenants are allowed to keep greyhounds, and it be desirable to preserve the hares for particular occasions, such a cover cannot be kept too quiet, as it cannot be disturbed in the slightest degree with impunity. Hence the necessity of a good look-out, as in a coursing country tricks of all sorts are resorted to to make the hares leave the covers, in which case they make their forms on the fallows, stub

bles, or elsewhere, according to the season of the year, and then are victimised by greyhounds; but if hares leave a cover, pheasants do so much more readily, and stray to a greater distance, sometimes as far as two or three miles: some of them will of course return in a few days to the cover where they have been in the habit of being fed, if they have not gone into an enemy's country, and their return intercepted.

It is very easy, in a favourable country for pheasants, to raise a large stock of them; but it is most difficult to keep them when you have got them, no bird being more easily poached, both by day and night; and as there is no bird whose exact place of resort is more easily ascertained by the poacher, all the latter requires is a couple of hours unmolested by day to clear a large plantation: hence the necessity of unremitting vigilance. To keep a large stock of pheasants together, you must feed regularly and in particular spots. The poachers are aware of this, and are as watchful of the movements of the keepers as the latter are of them; and when they learn that the keeper who has charge of a particular district is absent, they immediately repair to it, and commence their operations, one of which is called "hingling." If there are four men, they will, in a very short time, set two or three hundred snares at the end of a plantation, more or less, according to its

size, and to the quantity of pheasants they know to be there, and when these are set go round to the other end of the cover, and walk, at regular distances, slowly towards their snares, making a slight noise by cracking and breaking rotten branches, which will be quite sufficient to set all the pheasants in motion, and will be more effective than if they had a dog, as he would perhaps drive them too fast, and make them take wing. When the poachers reach the end of the cover, the pheasants are taken out of the snares and put into a sack, and the snares removed; they then proceed to another cover, if they think they have time, or move off, as circumstances may suggest. Perhaps they have a light cart waiting in the nearest road, ready to receive the spoil; if not, perhaps they conceal the sack till nighttime, when one of the party comes and fetches it. Many covers are cleared in this manner without the knowledge of the keeper; and when the day arrives for the "grande battue," there is great disappointment, and the head keeper looks very foolish, not knowing how and when he was duped, although he cannot deny the fact.

I was once present when one of these "contretemps" occurred; more than half the pheasants were gone, without any appearance of poaching having been visible, and a regular watch having been kept both night and day; and as a shot had