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an ounce of No. 5 or 6 shot propelled by a proper charge say 42 to 44 grains of Schulze or E. C.-will make a very pretty pattern at 40 yards, either horizontally or vertically, and for the present we must rest satisfied at that. [SHOOTING Nevertheless, there is a fortune in store for the inventor of a smokeless, gritless, and really powerful powder.

SUFFOLK AND BERKSHIRE.

W. G. CRAVEN.

THE SCIENCE OF SHOOTING.-- The best all-round sportsman is the one who knows best how to find the maximum of opportunity and to turn it to the maximum of account. The opportunity desired may be limited to obtaining a single specim men among thousands, or may extend to the making of a record bag. The satisfaction of success is the same in each case, but cannot be attained without qualifications, which the ordinary shooter, especially of hand-reared game, however skilful in the use of the gun, does not usually possess or aspire to. A thorough sportsman must have good powers of observation with a complete knowledge of the habits of birds and animals under varying conditions; in short, he should be not only a sportsman, but a naturalist.

Col. Theodore Roosevelt's account of his expedition in Africa is refreshing in this respect, and is evidently the record of a man to whom sport and natural history appeal with equal interest, and whose powers of observation persistently cultivated in other fields were brought to bear with splendid results among new surroundings.

The prancing stroke of the lion in chase as depicted by Snyders, or the blind fury of a rhinoceros as photographed by Dugmore, were mere passing incidents tending to more complete appreciation of what might be required of a sportsman in the pursuit of such animals; the life habits of a partridge, a grouse, or a pheasant must equally be studied and kept in mind by all sportsmen or keepers who aspire to the management of a day's shooting for one, two, or many guns. 8 GUNS AT INSTANT OF TURNING DOWN WIND.

The feeding grounds of the birds must be observed; their hours of frequenting turnips, stubble, or other cover must be noticed, and full advantage should be taken of their tendency to return to favoured 4 SHOOTING] haunts as soon as danger has passed. In the case of partridges the knowing old pothunter will be seen when the ground has been disturbed following the windward side of some rough hedge with his dog trained to be never too far in advance, pushing the birds out towards him from the opposite side one or two at a time. On a very cold, frosty day in winter he will be seen tramping through the light snow on banks covered with dead bracken, well knowing that here the red-legged partridges will lie like stones when sheltering from the cold, and fail to run away to safety as in more about 1865, where his oid friend General Hall used to invite the best shots of the day.

The late Lord Huntingfield, the late General (then Colonel) R. Bateson, his host, and himself were walking in line through thin turnips down a wind so strong that the birds, although wild, were loath to take wing. As we advanced they rose singly at from 25 to 40 yards, heads to wind, and curving in their flight would have been out of shot in a moment if not killed, as they were in rapid succession, and almost without a mistake, exactly at the instant of turning (Fig. 1).

FIG. 2. open weather. When the ice is on the meres, and a gale of wind is blowing, the keen and hardy fowler will be found waiting before daylight for the first ducks to arrive at some unfrozen spring under the shelter of the sallows, or with an old nightshirt over his warmer clothing, and a white cap to conceal his presence on the snow-clad earth, he will be waiting for wood-pigeons wood-pigeons at their favourite feeding grounds where acorns or beech mast are plentiful, his stuffed decoy birds wired to the branches of some naked tree down wind before him.

The manager of partridge driving, if he knows his work equaily well, will select the best field of turnips or other good cover for concentrating the birds before they pass over the guns, and will never fail to send men across the neighbouring stubbles or meadow land, especially in the early morning and after mid-day. He will avoid placing his guns behind low hedges insufficient to conceal them, and will take every advantage of the direction of the wind to carry the birds as far as may be safely attempted from favourite haunts, that they may the more boldly face it when driven back from the extremity of his beat. He will know that birds rise always by preference with their heads to the wind, and the stronger the wind the more surely do they exhibit this tendency.

One of the prettiest bits of shooting the writer ever saw was at Six-mile-bottom The shooting was evenly distributed along the line, and even the longest shots were killed dead because the necks and sides of the birds were exposed at an instant when to the eye they were almost stationary. This manœuvre is an enjoyable and useful variation when it is desired to push the birds down wind with a view to having them driven back over guns. However satisfactory may be the system of direct up and down wind driving, the lateral extension of the beat should not be neglected, and will afford good cross drives if the down wind flank of the beaters is judiciously but not unreasonably advanced; but it should be borne in mind that the area to be subsequently swept against the wind should be greater and more gradually contracted than that of the other drives, since many birds from the lateral drives will scatter widely before alighting after a longsustained flight with the wind behind them. These points are matters of common observation to the competent sportsman who knows how to present the maximum of opportunity for making a good bag. Such a man will also know how to turn his own opportunities to the best account.

When placed behind a fence or belt of trees, it will be noticed that within a fair margin of discretion and without interfering with his neighbours' sport, he will take advantage of every possible chance of improving his position. Birds coming over, especially against the wind, will prefer the lower to the higher portions of the hedge or belt, and will often flock to a gap. He will stand where he can command any notable depression in the sky-line before him and watch it specially; he will regulate his distance from the hedge so as to be within shot of an adjacent gap without being visible to birds approaching it (Fig. 2). He will be fully aware of his luck if a crossfence meets at right angles the one over which the drive is directed exactly or nearly opposite to his position.

When placed close to the fence, as is often necessary where a drive is against the wind, he will be seen to cut away a GUN AND LOADER, GROUSE DRIVING. few twigs or brambles if they impede his sight or his gun; or, if this is impracticable, to make peep-holes through which he can get some view of the field before him, and notice the advance and direction of the birds.

His dog will be well trained to leave him only when specially sent, to be quick in the return, and even to mark a wounded or towering bird. The writer has had two dogs that would sometimes stand on their hind legs to get a longer view for this purpose, and one of them would fetch a towered bird nearly two fields away if permitted to do so, answering to direction by the hand like a trained sheepdog. All these points in the game tend to success, and those who are less observant are favoured by luck if they can ever show as good results as the man who knows how to make the most of them.

In grouse-driving the same rules apply. [SHOOTING To a man who, placed in a turf-built battery, crouches or strains, shooting becomes more or less an effort. The late Frederick Corrance, who was one of the finest shots of his day, used to dilate upon the importance of what he called "infinitesimal causes," such as a tight shirt collar, or a thick seam in the shoulder of a shooting coat, and many others which more or less affect sustained exertion and accuracy.

When driving first came into force, and there were no gun-makers' training grounds for shooters, he would employ boys to throw potatoes over the garden wall for him to practise taking them at different angles.

We may hope that he did not find much lead in his Irish stew. The observant sportsman will remove a turf here and add another there to insure a level line along the edge of his battery, coming well round to protect his sides from view, and at the exact height most convenient for his stature; his guns will be set up before him against a cloth or handkerchief pegged on to the turf to prevent this from getting into their muzzles. Spare cartridges will be laid on a shelf of turf, and his loaders will be behind him well trained to take the empty guns from his right hand, and to place them again in position, when loaded, without passing them under his arm while firing. a His cap or hat will be of some inconspicuous colour, and his shoulders will never be visible above the edge of the butt except in the act of firing, while the height of this will be so regulated as to enable him to bring his gun to bear without impediment upon the low-flying birds. Such man will need no side guards to prevent him from firing toward his neighbours; he will take his birds before and after they have passed the danger zone, and if he has any fear of uncertainty about its direction or extent he will put up a stone, a pile of turf, or a handkerchief to mark the line and warn the eye. The best side guards, if such are required, may be formed with SHOOTING] looped sticks or galvanised wire hoops (Fig. 3), somewhat in the form of the wellknown mole trap, by which the hand must be automatically thrown up without being unnecessarily impeded if the gun should be inadvertently swung across the line instead FIG. 3. of being raised and dropped again as it should be.

When two parties of beaters are employed the men should all have their turn in protecting the flanks of the drive; this saves time and distributes the fatigue of longer walking more fairly than if the same men are always sent round to the longest distances; but there may be posts of special importance for which only the most skilful flankers can be selected. When the outer butt is on the point of a hill in an up-wind drive, it may be desirable to post a man beyond and even behind this outer gun to turn inwards such birds as would otherwise pass around the point, out of range, but he must know when he may and when he may not show himself; it is better to let a few birds pass beyond him than to turn a pack in the wrong direction; and this may depend entirely on his discretion in making himself visible at exactly the must depend upon the configuration of the hillside, and does not apply to level ground, where it is only necessary that the flankers should be sufficiently advanced. The best drives can usually be obtained by following the course of the main ridges, or by sweeping some extensive flat; a gully or broken watercourse usually affords good shelter for the butts. These should not be placed on the open ridge if it can be avoided; they should be out of sight sufficiently behind rising ground to permit the shooter to see the birds before they are actually upon him.

Great care is required in selecting the spot for each butt; these should be as nearly as possibe in the same line; nothing is so dangerous as a zig-zag row of scarcely visible butts in uneven ground; a judicious use of the spade will get over difficulties arising from inequalities of level, and some regard should be had for the probable feelings of a man who finds himself placed in an exceptionally elevated and conspicuous battery to save someone the trouble of digging out a few feet of earth. If no gully is available, butts may be placed behind the crest of a hill where birds cannot see them until the direction of their flight is fairly settled; but in such a case some birds are almost invariably lost to the drive by pitching on the hilltop before reaching the guns and being turned back by the firing along the line. a A steep hillside is not as a rule suitable for a line of butts; the shooting is likely to be unevenly distributed, and the birds are usually more difficult to direct; but if we come to walking in line without pointers, such ground affords great opportunities. One or more guns following the sheep tracks along the side of a steep incline, against a strong wind, with two or three flag men in advance upon the higher and FIG. 4. required moment. A good flanker will often lie flat until the leading grouse are almost up to him, when a slight movement will be sufficient to direct them without such demonstrations as would probably turn the pack in a wrong direction (Fig. 4). All this more level ground above them will enjoy such a series of rocketing shots as may try their skill to the utmost. Birds will rise above them and turn back with the wind over their heads before becoming aware of any other danger than the flags they see above or beyond them. The writer frequently when shooting alone on such ground had a black retriever so trained that he would range widely out of sight on the hill above, and would never fail to approach and flush the grouse so that they turned back over his head below the hill, affording the finest shooting imaginable (Fig. 5). When a shot was fired, the dog always appeared on the edge د FIG. 5. of the ridge and marked where the bird fell, going often 300 yards or more down into the valley behind to retrieve it. These birds flew so high and wide, and the ground was so steep, that although dropping dead to the shot, the strong wind would carry them to that distance before they reached the ground. Only when the bird was gathered would the dog resume his beat and repeat his tactics. Walking in line, especially against a strong wind with advanced and extended flankers on either side in open ground, is always productive of sporting shots. Partridges, grouse, or pheasants will rise in front and turn back high over the guns during the walk, and when the limit is reached those which have gone forward can be encircled by the flankers, with such stoppers as have probably been sent on in advance, and brought back to the position chosen for the line of guns. The system was practised on a very large scale at Knowsley ¹ in the time of the old Lord Derby (the Prime Minister), who was a thorough sportsman, and on great open tracts of wild ground interspersed with patches of rough covert produced fine shooting and heavy bags, to the delight not only of the guests, but of the pitmen and other Lancashire lads who were allowed to accompany the guns in large numbers under proper control. Many of these men kept their betting books as busy as at a pigeon match, and specially enjoyed seeing "rabbit back" neatly picked off among their legs without injury to a bootlace. a 1 The north side of Beamsley Moor.

SHOOTING Since the publication of the "Badminton Field Sports," enormous advances have been made in the management of covert shooting, and the principle of providing not only quantity but quality of shots has been far more generally recognised than formerly.

There are few places now where some advantage is not taken of high ground or high trees to raise the flight of game over guns.

The keeper who relies upon numbers only for his reputation, and encourages "plastering," is accounted of less value than one who favours sporting shots and provides a second day with a fair bag, mainly of cocks, in the same coverts before the end of the season. Where pheasants are to be concentrated for a rise, the importance of gradual flushing in small numbers rather than the sudden rush of large flights of birds cannot be overrated. To this end good ground cover is absolutely necessary; cut branches strewed on the ground, or spruce tops pricked in side by side, are at the best poor substitutes for growing herbage. Berberis aquifolia, Hypericum nepaulensis, Vinca major, &c., are all better for this purpose if rabbits are kept in check, and these will grow well on suitable soil even under fairly thick deciduous trees; but in more open spaces, where trees are widely scattered, common bracken, when broken down by frost, is very useful to prevent pheasants from running together and flushing simultaneously. Epilobium angustifolium, if thickly grown, answers the same purpose, and is, moreover, equally unaffected by rabbits. The dead and broken stalks form a thick tangle in which the birds crouch until separately flushed, and the pretty pink flowers provide lovely patches of colour in late summer. Another very important point in securing a goodly proportion of the pheasants which each beat provides is the proper placing of stoppers. As the winter advances, pheasants will run from the sound of guns at considerable distances, and some stoppers should be placed at the extremities of a range of coverts before a gun is fired. In the case of a series of small plantations leading up to a suitable flushing point, it is useless to stop each separate plantation; enough shooting will be had, if game is not scarce, on the forward march, and when the stop is nearly reached, positions can be assigned to the guns and beaters sent round to join the stoppers in a return drive. It may probably be desirable to place also beforehand some few side stoppers, as in the case where angles of covert approach or point in the direction of other adjacent woods. Pheasants will try to escape at the sides, especially where a thick hedge or belt provides shelter connecting the beat with other familiar ground; SHOOTING] such points must be guarded. If the guns in line with beaters can be trusted not to fire at low birds going forward, it is well to have two guns on each outside of a line of covert, one well in advance, and one never in advance, but if birds are inclined to break back even a little behind the line.

Birds going straight back over high trees or curving back outside the covert are worth killing, not only as good sporting shots, but because they would probably escape to ground already beaten, and be no more available during the day; thus a good if not a greedy shot should be told off for the outside flank of the line. All managers of shooting should make it their business to see that each gun has a fair share of the sport; if a man is unlucky in one place, put him in a surely better one next time; if he is not up to his work, it is usually easy to place a better man to back him up without interfering with his chances.

No promotion fees from guests to keepers should ever be allowed by any host to interfere with this rule, and where it is invariably applied such shady tricks are rendered unprofitable and are accordingly suppressed.

The scientific, or rather the keen and observant, sportsman can frequently be recognised in covert shooting by the way in which he deals with ground game; sometimes he is two or three yards ahead of the line, sometimes two or three behind it, never far enough out of position to affect the main plan of operations, but always with his eye fixed on any clear space, however small, among the brushwood, which a rabbit or hare will probably cross either forward or backward as the case may be, and such a man is invaluable in thick covert.

He will add greatly to the count at the day's end without depriving other guns of any legitimate chances. How often has the writer preferred the lot of Mr. Walker as described in the old story of Jerry Jaggard, General Hall's famous keeper: "Yew tew Dukes come along o' me, Lords and Markusses goo wi' the Gineral; Muster Walker'll be wi' the beaters and tak 'is chance of a hare back." Old Jerry was a great character, and his successor, Jim