The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-12-24
How Sport Is Enjoyed in November
DAYS

The sun shone as it can shine sometimes
| In November, ana there was Just enough
OF gentle wind TO carry the dust OF the
barley thresliing clear of the men who
were feeding the winnowing, rattling
monster that was eating the homestack
foot by foot. writes E. Kay Robinson in
the London Mail
AS | leaned on the gate. with the deep
I toned hum OF the threshing engine in
my ears. considering which way 4 should
turn, the rocks decided me. They were
collected in the tops of clump of trees
growing out of a pit hole ia the mid
die of the large clover stubble, eXcitedly
| discussing the situation; L went over
the dewy clover to see what the situa-
ton was.
had not gone many yards before I
| heard IL and understood why the village
dogs were all barking. over the rolling
upland came the cracking echo of many
guns. The horizon was clouded with
drifting skyarks; missed thrushes flying
hard and high, swooped like hawks 70
the shelter of the hedgerows, and a soli-
tary partridge passed me at the gate,
flying like d thunderbolt. Patridges only
fly like that when a falcon has stopped
for one of a covey, or when they have
been driven by a line Of heaters over
line of guns. So ! took my place with
the rocks at the clump of trees in the
stubhle, to watch developments.
A cloud of starlings arrived next; and,
looking through my glasses in the di-
rectiOn whence they came, l could see
a long line of heaters with red flags dd-
vancing across a distant stubble, Osten-
tatiOuSly menacing the peace of the
countryside, while the real danger, the
line of men with guns, was quietly
threading its way down hedge three
fields ahead. As the sun gllnted on
gun barrels the procession looked like a
shiny snake. Before the guns were in
position the beaters were half across
their course; and the last long field Of
turnips was as thick with restless birds
as d cheese with mites, before the first
red flag came tumbling through a hedge
sap.
Again the glints of sunlight flashed on
gun barrels as the shooters took their
allotted stations. where peeled Wands had
been stuck in the ground by the keep
erS on the previous day; ana meanwhile
the red-fiagged heaters reformed their
line under the hedge and awaited the
signal In the dead silence that ensued
the birds seemed to recover from their
alarm or else. more terrified were "
ing low. Not a wing moved in the tur-
nips. bat overhead sIylarks sang joyous
ly and the sun shOne. Crack! when the
signal pistol; horn answered horn, and
at once the line of red flags began TO
move.
In the distance, through glasses, the
heaters look almost like boys kicking up
the dust in front of them, so thickly
the air flickers with brown birds before
their steps. \ willy pheasant-there had
been a preliminary drive for pheasants
and hares over the same ground iaSt week
gets up and flies for all it is worth
diagonally across the field, clearinSs the
guns, with good hundred yards 10
spare. A hare races out of the turnipS
and heads straight across the open stun
BILE toward me; she seems to know that
heaters behind mean deadly danger In
front "Bang-bang, go the guns at the
far end of the line where a nervous
couple of partridges anticipated the gem
eral stampede. Another pheasant, warned
by the sound, sweTves IN mldfilght and
passes slantwise back in spite OF waved
red flags and shouts, over the Dedtefs
heads. The fugitive hare passes me SO
close that l could almost have killed
her with nay walking stick
But by now the cloud OF partridges has
broken over the guns, and the rafting
explosions are incesSant though some
times every gun is speaking IS dissyl-
tables as fast as ii can be ioaded, and
at others the chain Of sound Is kept
up by isolated links of single shots. The
heaters reach the hedge, and like -nls-
urbed ants nest men and dogs scatter
all over the ground, collecting fallen birds.
In a few minutes the snakelike file OF
guns is crawling again between ihe hedge
rows Of the road TO the new station,
toward which line of blue-fiagged beat
ers Is already advancing over the dis
tant SKYLINE. Here again a halt is called
and when the last long field IS reached,
and the skylarks are singing overhead
and finches twittering in the hedge
during the silence before the signal is
game OF death begins again.
The cartridges are growing wary. CoNey
after cOYey, and at last PACK OF a
hundred or more break away Oblquely,
and for a time escape the guns, while. one
after another. hareS and running part
ridges slip through the side hedge and,
regardless of spectators, gam the tree
open county, until. that is to say, the
next drive. half an hour later. picks
them up again. For the partridge fly
wherever loopholes OF escape present
themselves, and man arranges his loop
holes so that a bird which ESCAPES from
one drive falls into Their middle of the
next.
1t is very cunning partridge which,
by the time that the ground has been
driven, and redriVen from every point of
the compass, has not been forced once
at least past the muzzle of a gun.
Only the, Witness o. the old pheasant
exceeds all devices. Sometimes he will
run q quarter OF a mile at a greyhound
speed rather than expose himself: or he
viii fly diagonally from the heaters out
OF range; or else. If all else fails he
and take shelter in the very hedge be-
mind which the guns are ranged. lying
low while the beaters tbump the hedge
with sticks, or the keepers search it
with dogs for wounded birds. But such
escapes are the exception, and slaugh-
ter is the rule. Looking down the field
you see cOvey after coVey of partridgCs
skilnming low above the turnips with the
SuuHSHA BlnlillS on tneir wings. flicker
ing up for an instant as they rise to top
the hedge; and then-bang- bang bang
-bang-bang The air is flecked with
floating feathers the ground starred with
bouacing cOrpses. and slender remnant
Of the covey while cluttering 10 distant
fields
Leaving this scene for while YOU
find the sunlit air throbbing with the
music OF skylarks. On a remote field the
gulis and plOvers are feeding as they
aid yesterday, in peace and quietness:
and. though there is an aiertness and
dlOofness in the attitude of the listening
rocks and bereaved partridges are calling
IDLY FOR their dead companions in every
Held. Ii Is hard To believe. with the hum
Of the threshing engine again in ones
ears, the rafting and rumbling Of the
ing or tiR sparrows round the dwhdling
rex, that the same slaughter is still go-
ing on within field or two.
But there is another side TO the MIC
ture. Come and sit under the hedge
toward which the partridgcs are being
driven. Within three yards OF you is a
man with gun. one of a line of men
with guns, and a loader with his second
gun standing close behind. His is
ulftcult position. The corner Of a high
hedge runs, up to the lane in front so
that he. cannot see the birds until, traV-
cling like bullets, they are almost over
head. An oak tree on either hand and
a wheatstack behind cause them TO
throw up at that point. and he has
a bare three yards by ten OF sky in which
TO KILL Yet such is the marvellous pre-
cision of trained eye. brain and hand
working IN concert that not one bird
IN half a score that seeks that avenue
10 SAFETY, escapes Two pass high over
head at once. They are not clear of
the oak trees until the gun barrels slope
backward over the shooters shoulders
Yet in that Instant both barrels speak
and botn birds fail, right and left. TWEEN
~ yards behind
Admiration for such skill is Infectious:
and, although here a wounded biri losses
ana flutters. gnd there a hare kicks it
self over and over in its efforts to rise
until, the beat over. the dogs arc lOosed
and its squeals announce the inevitable
end-though these details may offend the