Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-08-10
Driving Partridges.

AccOrulnB 10 the nOuerI system, nall
a dozen guns and half dozen beaters,
each with retriever behind him, walk
in line through the turnips, going from
one field to another, knocking over the
birds as they rise in front of them like
pigeons, never stopping to look for a
runner or caring to mark cOvey. This
method of proceeding, in time, becomes
exceedingly monotonous, and it is no
wonder that men have ceased to care
about days shooting as they used to
do. To leave the house about II, after
lounge in the stable-yard with a cigar,
to march through the turnips for two or
, three hours, and then to find sumptu-
ous lunch laid out for them in farm
house, with champagne, hot outlets,
lobster salad, and what not, and to walk
again for two hours afterward, returning
home to finish the day VII lizards be
fore the late dinner, is now the regular
practice with many men who 80 years
ago would have worked hard from 9
o'clock to 6, and have taken more plea
sure in seeing their dogs work than in
making the largest bag. Another con-
sequence of the want of cover which is
now experienced ON most manors is that
the practice of driving birds has come
into fashion, not only late in the season
or among Frenchmen, but early in Sep
tember and where the birds are all Eng
ish. There is no occasion to describe
this branch of the sport at any length.
The shooters are either placed in little
huts or behind screens of boughs set up
for the occasion, or, when the sport is
extemporized, behind the tallest hedge
that call be found within the probable
range of flight, and the birds are then
driven toward the guns by as large a
party of men as can be mustered. Skill
and directions are required both in driv-
ing the birds and in shooting them when
driven. Partridges are no exception to
what is the rule with almost all animals,
wild or tame; they are very ''orkard' to
drive. Try to drive sheep through a
gateway, or even cows or horses, and the
chances are that many of them head
back and give You a run round the field
binds. Uniess tie f:Ic ~ the bcaters Is
formed in a proper crescent, and the
flight af the birds has been very accu-
rarely studied, not one covey in half a
dozen will come the right way. When,
however, it is properly managed, and the
guns are in good hands, the process is
murderous. Almost every bird in a
covey comes within shot of some one,
and party of five or six guns may kill
their 80 or 40 brace in this manner
where by the ordinary method they
would not kill quarter of the number.
else, too, which We have as
yet omitted to mention has had good
deal to do with the change which has
come over partridge-shooting during the
last few years. As the early period was
the flint period, so this third may be
styled the breech-loading period. The
quickness with which men can now load |
makes them want to fire oftener, and, as
no one ever stands still to load his gun;
the dogs, where they are still used, cease
to down charge and grow wild and will
full. More birds are probably killed now
in GOOD seasons than our orandfathers
ever dreamed of. Still it can hardly be
called sport, and is certainly not COM
parable with the old style of shooting,
which delighted our forefathers, and by
which in former times so many men of
eminence have lightened the cares Of
state and refreshed the overwrought
brain reeling under the weight of en-
pires.