PHEASANT SHOOTING may be considered the most laborious, and least entertaining, of the whole, unless in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hampshire, and some other counties, where the large tracts of lofty woodlands, and corresponding underwood, contribute so materially to their annual increase and preservation. This sport is mostly pursued with the small springing spaniel, whose eager tongue, the moment he touches _scent_ of the _foot_, or _winds_ the _bird_, gives "early note of earnest preparation." Pointers of great strength, and high courage, hunted with _a bell_, are frequently instrumental to good sport, and great success; but they must be fast goers, and once knowing their business, not readily disposed to _stop_, or _draw_ slowly; if so, the bird will frequently rise in the highest part of the covert, or at such _a distance_, that an open shot will but seldom be obtained, particularly in a country thin of game. Those who wish to preserve well-bred and well-broke pointers in a state of unsullied excellence, will not accustom them to covert hunting, but invariably use their spaniels in one of the sports for which they were so evidently intended.
PARTRIDGE SHOOTING is, to a contemplative mind, of a much more entertaining description; for the objects of pursuit being found in the open fields, every part of the sport is seen and enjoyed. Partridges are not in equal abundance every year, but depend in a great degree upon the state of the weather during the time of _laying_ the _eggs_, as well as the time of HATCHING; which is almost invariably between the _middle_ and the _end_ of JUNE. When the months of MAY and JUNE are dry, birds are in general exceedingly numerous, and proportionally strong upon wing by the commencement of the SHOOTING SEASON; but when heavy and dreadful rains fall, as they frequently do during the HAY HARVEST, the destruction is incredible. Such continued rains not only chill the eggs during incubation, but drown numbers of the young almost so soon as they are out of their shells. Wet seasons also are destructive to ANTS, upon which, and their eggs, young partridges and pheasants principally subsist. Partridges so soon as the corn is cut down, and they are in a great degree deprived of the shelter and protection under which they were bred, display a most wonderful timidity and dread of danger; to which the whole covey are induced by the unceasing anxiety of the HEN for the safety of her young.