, 1890-11-13


to where the best packs of birds are
to be found. This can only be fixed
by close observation by those con-
stantly acquainted with the con-
formation of the "shooting" area
and the ever-chunying habits of the
birds themselves. The seasons, too,
have an important bearing upon
their haunts. If IL Is wet, the birds
hatch at the edges OF braes and ON
the Urows of slopes end hills.
IL dry, they are sure to DO found
along the haughs, flats and peat
MOSES, where water Is In close
proximity for the young. There is
great labor In grouse-shooting, for
the shooter must be II ccascess
walker until the dogs take the scent
of game. Light breakfasts and early
work are the rule, n sandwich and
"A flask of cold tea supplying all
needs until luncheon-tIme, when
ladies join the jaded sportsmen on
the banks of some beautiful burn,
and genuine picnic IL enjoyed.
Two or three hours of midday are
thus passed when, with fresh dogs,
the afternoon work begins. This is
usually the best and heaviest. Late
dinners are the rule, and every true
British sportsman may be found In
his bed during the shooting season
by o'clock at night.
PHEASANT SHOOTING.
The October pheasant hunting as
well as the autumnal deer "driving"
provide u mode of entertainment on
grand scale but have more mur-
der and less sport in them than Is
pleasant to contemplate. The pleas
ants are partly domesticated, reared
by ordinary hen-mothers, and set at
liberty within the great demesnes In
July. Notwithstanding high walls,
gentlene 50 of keepers and all possible
preventives, many pheasants stray
from their home-manors, and, seek
ing the outer hedges and bog-grasses,
fall prey to the snares of small ten
ants aud common poachers. There
fore q few days before pheasant
shooting begins, all the gillies about
the estate form II circle OF miles from
the main-preserve and concentrat-
ing toward the latter, shout and
beat with terrific hulabaloo, thus
driving many back to their own
coverts. Then MILFORD and his friends,
dressed as for grouse or snipe-sh oot-
ing on the moors, and provided each
with two double-barreled, breech-
loading, center-iire fowling-pieces of
No. II bore, and n "loader," begin
the slaughter. The sportsmen are
stationed in advance at the edges of
open places. The gameliecper brings
his assistants or "beatersh into line
behind. Then these move forward
perhaps ten yards apart, the keeper,
who knows every bush, hedge, copse
or tree, directing the beaters in every
movement. The men yell, "Hi-yi-
i-ipp as they beat the pushes, calling
as the startled birds flash from copse
to copse, "Cock to the rightv-
Cock abovep'-''To the left, cock"'
"Hi-yi-i-i!--cock, cock, cocli!-
Right ahead cockw-while the
death-dealing guns answer in deaf
ening rapidity. From 800 TO 1000
birds are often gathered up from u
days slaughter; and are shipped
direct to London at from A to q shill-
ings per brace to dealers who an
nually furnish hampers and tags TO
the gumekeeper of each estate where
pheasants are known to be bred.
CoURsING FOR DEER.
Is thing of the past. Deer
stalking" which is stealing up
to the deer when they are ly-
ing or feeding, ana often requires
supreme strength, patience and
cunning, is the highest form of
sport now possible in the great Scot
tish forests. Even this Is largely re-
placed by the millionaire parvenu
sportsmen, who are willing To spend
500, 900 annually for the reputation
of shooting and sending to their city
friends few dozen red deer, by the
cruel and shameful practice Of "driv-
ing" TO illustrate: One man who
controls $4,000 acres of these High
land forests, leaves his lodge in this
very glen with the retinue cf me-
ileval king His 100 to $50 gillies
then surround forest and "drive"
the deer through some narrow pass
or gorge, where he aud his friends
squat behind rocks and shoot the
deer like sheep. This is wanton
butchery.
In the genuine sport of grouse
shooting and the glorious sport of
foX-hunting are found the only two
forms of true effort left to British
sportsmen. But while it may seem
odd to Americans that, as Is esti-
mated, every pheasant bagged costs
10 shillings, every grouse shot n
crown, every salmon taken SOW
ereign, and every deer killed Gl00,
the nicely with which game is bred
and preserved in Great Britain is
vastly more creditabie to British
sportsmen than our own wanton
destruction of game, from quail TO
bison, until everything pertaining
to the pursuit of our once myriads
of wild fowls and animals, save the
all-forgivable lies of olden sports
men, is now practically extinct.
EDGAR l.. WAKEMAN.
ANOTHER ANTIDOTE.