But I think perhaps the days I liked best were those on which my friend and I went out alone, with two steady pointers and my dear old Dinah, and picked up what birds we could. Of course it is difficult now to make large bags over dogs, even where birds are plentiful, as they do not lie to dogs in the shaven fields of modern times as they used to do in the days of stubble fields, nevertheless, we were generally able to pick up four or five brace in a morning, and a few rabbits. Hares were preserved for a pack of harriers, much affected by the farmers on the estate. Sometimes too, we would beat the hedgerows with a brace of good clumbers for rabbits, or stray pheasants, and once, in a little copse or spinney, we found, and I shot, a woodcock.
In turning to the subject of pheasants I have not a great deal to say, the opportunity of shooting them in these days coming but rarely to women. There are many reasons why a woman is out of place in big shoots, and as pheasants now are not often shot in any other way, it is not easy to get much practice at them. Nevertheless, there are one or two places on my father's property where, with a steady old setter, I can generally find a brace of pheasants or more. A pheasant flushed in a hedgerow, is no doubt sometimes an easy shot when you are in practice, but it is good for beginners, as is everything that gives you confidence in yourself. When you shoot your first pheasant and he comes down stone-dead, you feel you really are a sportswoman, and a new confidence which brings success in its train, springs up in your heart. In woods, of course, the birds give a greater trial of skill, as you must as a rule make longer shots, for they will be travelling much faster.
I seem to have said but little about pheasants which are after all the most important game, but the principles of shooting are the same in all cases, and with such pheasants as come in your way, you will be able to deal, if you read and put in practice the general precepts I have given, not forgetting to attend to the list of "Don'ts" to be found at the end.
We now come to rabbits, which are very important from one point of view, for the woman who can get nothing else can often get shots at "Bunny." There are so many ways you can get him. You may bolt him with ferrets, you may stalk him with a rabbit rifle or a gun, you may drive him out of covert with fox terriers or beagles, or you may make him the occasion of a big shoot of his own. There is one thing about the rabbit which is invaluable, he hardly ever offers you an easy shot, and very often he is one of the hardest animals in the world to hit. Rabbit shooting in company, unless that company be one of the most select, is decidedly dangerous, for more stray, careless and excited shots are made at rabbits than at any other form of sport. I am somewhat solitary in my sporting tastes, and much as I love the chasse aux lapins, I like it in solitude, or at all events with one trusted companion.
The form that I really prefer is that which in my younger days prevailed in Sussex, of bringing the rabbits out of their haunts with a small pack of rough beagles, the charming cry of these little hounds adding greatly to the pleasure of the day. About four couples are quite enough, and they should be well under control or you may find yourself toiling after your vanishing pack as they run the line of a hare, or even a fox. Beagles which are wanted for this kind of work should be kept strictly to rabbits and well exercised, so that they may be steady. Some preparation is desirable for a day of this kind, and in order to keep the rabbits above ground it is wise to run muzzled ferrets through the burrows a day or two before. The rabbits will then lie above ground. There is near my home a hill covered with patches of gorse, which we keep for this kind of shooting. We are very careful about our invited guns, as a careless shot easily mistakes a beagle for a rabbit. Indeed this sport requires great care and steadiness. But to my mind it is one of the most exciting and enjoyable of sports, the cry of the little hounds, the ringing shots, the dart of the little brown forms with their snowy patches of white down, the pleasure of success as the neatly-killed "bunny" turns over dead in his tracks, make up a most delightful whole for the enthusiastic gunner. The same kind of sport can be followed by spaniels, free-tongued dogs of any race being the best. Spaniels are better than any other dogs for working thick hedgerows, into which rabbits have been previously bolted by ferrets. Some people use terriers, but I only advise these when you have no other dogs handy. It is most difficult to keep terriers above ground. They should at any rate never be taken out in the spring, if you know of an earth in which a vixen fox may have lain up, or into coverts where foxes are.
If you wish to enjoy the pleasures of deer stalking on a small scale, take out a small rifle and stalk rabbits. You will find it a most entrancing sport, calling out all your knowledge of woodcraft, and teaching you much you did not know before. You will not shoot many rabbits, but those you do get will be well earned. Remember, however, that bullets from these rifles travel a long way, and that you should always know what is behind the rabbit when you shoot. By the time you can kill a rabbit fairly often, at from fifty to sixty yards with a bullet, you will be a good shot.
From a Painting by Miss Maud Earl.
FLAT-COATED RETRIEVER.
CHAMPION DARENTH.