If all the course were equal, the dog that bore the re won; if the hare was not borne, the cause was judged dead. If a dog fell in a course, and yet perimed his part, he might challenge the advantage of turn more than he gave.

If a dog turned the hare, served himself, and gave ivers cotes, and yet in the end stood still in the field, he other dog, if he ran home to the cover, although gave no turn, was adjudged the winner.

If by accident a dog was rode over in his course, the mrse was void, and he that did the mischief was to ake reparation for the damage. If a dog gave the 1st and last turn, and there was no other advantage twixt them, he that gave the odd turn won.

He that came in first at the death, took up the hare, ved her from being torn, cherished the dogs, and ansed their mouths from the wool, was adjudged to ve the hare for his trouble.

Those that were judges of the course were to give eir decision before they departed out of the field."

SHOOTING GROUSE-PARTRIDGES, &c.

The leading sports with dog and gun are the shootof grouse, partridges, and pheasants, which differ some respects from each other. The first thing to » attended to in either case is having a good fowlingece or gun; and the second is to know how to use d clean it. Next, the sportsman must be provided ith a dog trained to point the kind of game for which is taken to the field; to take a dog accustomed to int partridges on a grouse-shooting excursion would improper. The gunpowder employed should be kept ry dry in a metal flask, and of proper strength and urity. Patent shot is now commonly used; it is of ght sorts, each numbered, and rises from 83 pellets 620 pellets in the ounce. The more tender the rds, the smaller may be the pellets or drops. For ouse, shooters begin with No. 7, or 480 to the ounce ; ucks require shot No. 4, or 105 to the ounce.

The following hints to a beginner in shooting are by awker and others :-" In raising the gun, let him member that the moment it is brought up to the ntre of the object, the trigger should be pulled, as e first sight is always unquestionably the best. Then nd him out to practise at a card with powder, till he 18 got steady, and afterwards load his gun occasionly with shot, but never let the time of your making us addition be known to him; and the idea of it ing perhaps impossible to strike his object will reove all anxiety, and he will soon become perfectly ollected.

The intermediate lesson of a few shots at small birds may be given; but this plan throughout must be adopted game, and continued, in the first instance, till the upil has quite divested himself of all tremor at the pringing of a covey, and observed in the last, till most f his charges of shot have proved fatal to the birds. If he begins with both eyes open, he will save himself he trouble of learning to shoot so afterwards. An aim thus, from the right shoulder, comes to the same point as one taken with the left eye shut, and it is the most ready method of shooting quick. Be careful to remind him (as a beginner) to keep his gun moving, as follows:-before an object, crossing; full high for a bird rising up or flying away, very low; and between the ears of hares and rabbits running straight away. All this, of course, in proportion to the distance; and if we consider the velocity with which a bird flies, we shall rarely err by firing, when at forty yards, at least five or six inches before it. Till the pupil is au fait in all this, he will find great assistance from the sight, which he should have precisely on the intended point, when he fires. He will thus, by degrees, attain the art of killing his game in good style, which is to fix his eyes on the object, and fire the moment he has brought up the gun. He may then ultimately acquire the knack of killing snap shots, and bring down a November bird the moment it tops the stubble, or a rabbit popping into a furze-brake, with more certainty than

he once used to shoot a young grouse in August or a partridge in September.

Many begin with very quick shooting, and kill admirably well, but are often apt not to let their birds fly before they put up their gun, and therefore dreadfully mangle them, and, I have already observed, are not such every-day shots as those who attain their rapid execution on a slow and good principle.

If a rival shooter (some stranger) races to get before you, push him hard for a long time, always letting him have rather the advantage, and then give him the double without his seeing you. Having done this, go quietly round (supposing you have been beating up wind); and on reaching the place where you began, work closely and steadily the whole of the ground or covert that you have both been racing over, and you will be sure to kill more game than he will, who is beating and shooting in haste, through fear of your getting up to him, and (if the wind should rise) driving the dispersed, and consequently closest lying birds, to your beat as fast as he finds them.

Beware of the muzzle of the gun being kept hanging downwards; when so carried, the shot is apt to force its way from the powder, especially in clean barrels. If it happens that a space of sixteen or eighteen inches is thus obtained, and the gun fired with its point below the horizon, it is ten to one but the barrel bursts. There are other perilous consequences besides those that generally accompany the disruption of a barrel, for the men, horses, and dogs, are in perpetual danger of being shot when a gun is carried in the before-mentioned pendant manner.

When a gun begins to exhibit symptoms of having done its work, the sooner a man discards it the better. An injured barrel or enfeebled lock may prove fatal to the owner or his associates. Accidents occur every day, and very lamentable consequences proceed, from a culpable neglect in retaining arms which should be declared unserviceable and disused."

Grouse Shooting.-This favourite field sport, as is well known, commences annually on the 12th of August, when thousands of persons adjourn to remote parts of the country to follow it, with all its toils and privations. Among the varieties of the game are numbered the cock of the wood or capercailze; the black cock, black game, or black grouse; the red grouse, or moor-fowl; and the white grouse or ptarmigan. The moor-fowl are the most common, at least on the northern moors and hills. The birds being hatched in April, if the summer is dry, they will be pretty strong on the wing in August. The best weather for shooting is that which is dry and warm; wet makes them lie still on the ground. No one need attempt grouse shooting who is of delicate health, or not well trained by previous feeding and exercise. The labour of walking over heather is most toilsome, and the danger of colds from rain or wet feet considerable. The dress ought to be very strong, without any regard to fineness; stout shoes or quarter boots are indispensable.

The times of day best suited for grouse shooting are the morning and evening, when the birds are in quest of food; but few are able to reach their haunts till eight o'clock, when the sport commences. "To find the birds," says the author of " Wild Sports of the West," "when, satisfied with food, they leave the moor to bask in some favourite haunt, requires both patience and experience, and here the mountain-bred sportsman proves his superiority over the less practised shooter. The packs then lie closely, and occupy a small surface on some sunny brow or sheltered hollow. The best nosed dogs will pass within a few yards and not acknowledge them; and patient hunting, with every advantage of the wind, must be employed to enable the sportsman to find grouse at this dull hour. But if close and judicious hunting be necessary, the places to be beaten are comparatively few, and the sportsman's eye readily detects the spot where the pack is sure to be discovered. He leaves the open feeding grounds for heathery know and sheltered valleys; and while the uninitiated w

Did you hear that hound catch him?-they overran the scent, and the fox had laid down behind him. Now, Reynard, look to yourself! How quick they all give their tongues! The terriers, too, are now yelping at him. How close Vengeance pursues !-how terribly she presses it is just up with him! What a crash they make; the whole wood resounds! That turn was very There!-now!-ay, now they have him! Who-hoop!" The chase is over; Reynard is no more; and his brush or tail being cut off as a trophy by the huntsman, his unfortunate carcass is thrown to the hounds, and in a few moments destroyed, leaving scarcely a wreck behind.

short!

HARE-HUNTING-COURSING.

Hares are hunted in much the same manner as foxes, the chief difference being that harriers are employed instead of hounds; both hunt by the scent. Of this branch of field-sports, the writer of the excellent article on Hunting, in the "Encyclopædia Britannica," makes the following mention :

"Hare-hunting claims precedence of fox-hunting in the sporting chronology of Great Britain, and we believe of all other countries, inasmuch as a hare has always been esteemed excellent eating, and a fox the rankest of carrion. We gather from Xenophon that it was practised before his day, and he wrote fully three centuries before the Christian era, both hounds and nets being then used in the pursuit. Neither can we marvel at hare-hunting being the favourite diversion in all nations given to sporting, where the use of the horse in the field had not become common. But we will go a point farther than this, and assert, that how inferior soever may be the estimation in which hunting the hare is held in comparison with hunting the fox, no animal of the chase affords so much true hunting as she does, which was the opinion of the renowned Mr Beckford.

The difficulty of finding a hare by the eye is well known. It is an art greatly facilitated by experience, although not one person in ten who attempts it succeeds. But here we recognise the hand that furnished her with such means for her security; as, from the delicacy of her flesh, she is the prey of every carnivorous animal, and her means of defence are confined only to flight. In going to her form, she consults the weather, especially the wind, lying always, when she can, with her head to face it. After harvest, hares are found in all situations; in stubble fields, hedgerows, woods, and brakes; but when the leaves fall, they prefer lying upon open ground, and particularly on a stale fallow, that is, one which has been some time ploughed ; as likewise after frost, and towards the spring of the year. In furze or gorse, they lie so close as to allow themselves nearly to be trodden upon, rather than quit their form. The down or upland-bred hare shows best sport; that bred in a wet marshy district the worst, although the scent from the latter may be the strongest. If a hare, when not viewed away, runs slowly at first, it is generally a sign that she is an old one, and likely to afford sport; but hares never run so well as when they do not know where they are. Thus trapped hares, turned out before hounds, almost invariably run straight on end, and generally till they can run no longer; and they generally go straight in a fog. The chase of the hare has been altered, and rendered less difficult in some degree, by the improvement of the hound used in it.

hare squats; the fox lies down, stops, or hangs in cover; the who-whoop' signifies the death of each.” Hares are hunted with packs of generally twenty couples of barriers; but whatever number is employed, it is the established rule not to run in upon the hares as soon as discovered in their forms, but to allow them a little space before the dogs are set on. The hares, also, must not be pressed upon in the chase by the company, neither are the dogs, on losing scent, to be called on the right path; for this leads them to depend on the sight of the huntsman instead of their own nose. Leave the harriers pretty much to themselves.

Coursing is the chasing and taking of the hare by means of greyhounds, which hunt by the sight only. Among fox-hunters it is considered an inferior kind of sport, but many country gentlemen find in it an exhilarating recreation, and it is patronised by numerous coursing clubs. "There is," says Blaine, even a philanthropic character about coursing almost unknow to other huntings. It may be said to offer a kind of refuge for the sporting destitute, for it holds out innocent recreation to those whose means or whose prodence will not allow them to risk either their neck after a fox or their wealth after a racer. Here the octogenarian, at once labouring under his increased years and his decreased energies, may solace himself with an epitome of former huntings; and farther, that the joys of this chase are within the reach of every state or stage of life."

The greyhound, whose form so eminently adapts hira for competing with the hare in a race, requires to be well trained in the art of turning suddenly, and deter minedly pursuing his game on a new line of pursut, His eye should be clear and quick, and his wind good, to enable him to hold out to the last. Greyhounds are delicate in their nature, and require very careful treat ment; their lodging must be dry and comfortable; and when taken out in a cold morning, they must be held in leash with jackets on, ready to let slip. In any case, they are not uncoupled or let go till the hare has bee seen and started. A single pair of dogs is general'y sufficient for the sport; and betting often ensues as to the points in the course. There are numerous rules of ancient and modern date on the subject of coursing The following, established by the Duke of Norfolk Queen Elizabeth's reign, are yet held applicable:

"The Feuterer, or person who lets loose the greyhounds, was to receive those that were matched to res together into his leash, as soon as he came into the field, and to follow next to the hare finder, or him that was to start the hare, until he came to the form, and no horse or footmen were to go before or on either side, but directly behind for the space of about forty yaris A hare was not to be coursed with more than a brace of greyhounds.

The hare finder was to give the hare three 'sohas before he put her from her form, to give notice to the dogs that they may attend her starting.

The hare was to have twelve score yards law before the dogs were loosed, unless the small distance from the cover would not admit it without danger of immar diately losing her.

The dog that gave the first turn, and during the course, if there was neither cote, slip, nor wrench, w A cote is when the greyhound goes endways by hat fellow, and gives the hare a turn.

A cote served for two terms, and two trippings of jerkins for a cote; if the hare did not turn quite ab a', she only wrenched, and two wrenches stand for a turt

if one gave as many turns as the other, then be that bore the hare won. A go-by,' or bearing the hars was equivalent to two turns.

If neither dog turns the hare, he that led last to the cover won. If one dog turned the hare, served himse and turned her again, it was as much as a cote, far a cote was esteemed two turns.

If all the course were equal, the dog that bore the hare won; if the hare was not borne, the cause was adjudged dead. If a dog fell in a course, and yet performed his part, he might challenge the advantage of a turn more than he gave.

If a dog turned the hare, served himself, and gave divers cotes, and yet in the end stood still in the field, the other dog, if he ran home to the cover, although he gave no turn, was adjudged the winner.

If by accident a dog was rode over in his course, the course was void, and he that did the mischief was to make reparation for the damage. If a dog gave the first and last turn, and there was no other advantage betwixt them, he that gave the odd turn won.

He that came in first at the death, took up the hare, saved her from being torn, cherished the dogs, and cleansed their mouths from the wool, was adjudged to have the hare for his trouble.

Those that were judges of the course were to give their decision before they departed out of the field."

SHOOTING GROUSE PARTRIDGES, &c.

The leading sports with dog and gun are the shooting of grouse, partridges, and pheasants, which differ in some respects from each other. The first thing to be attended to in either case is having a good fowlingpiece or gun; and the second is to know how to use and clean it. Next, the sportsman must be provided with a dog trained to point the kind of game for which he is taken to the field; to take a dog accustomed to point partridges on a grouse-shooting excursion would be improper. The gunpowder employed should be kept very dry in a metal flask, and of proper strength and purity. Patent shot is now commonly used; it is of eight sorts, each numbered, and rises from 83 pellets to 620 pellets in the ounce. The more tender the birds, the smaller may be the pellets or drops. For grouse, shooters begin with No. 7, or 480 to the ounce ; ducks require shot No. 4, or 105 to the ounce.

The following hints to a beginner in shooting are by Hawker and others :—“In raising the gun, let him remember that the moment it is brought up to the centre of the object, the trigger should be pulled, as the first sight is always unquestionably the best. Then send him out to practise at a card with powder, till he has got steady, and afterwards load his gun occasionally with shot, but never let the time of your making this addition be known to him; and the idea of it being perhaps impossible to strike his object will remove all anxiety, and he will soon become perfectly collected.

The intermediate lesson of a few shots at small birds may be given; but this plan throughout must be adopted at game, and continued, in the first instance, till the pupil has quite divested himself of all tremor at the springing of a covey, and observed in the last, till most of his charges of shot have proved fatal to the birds. If he begins with both eyes open, he will save himself the trouble of learning to shoot so afterwards. An aim thus, from the right shoulder, comes to the same point as one taken with the left eye shut, and it is the most ready method of shooting quick. Be careful to remind him (as a beginner) to keep his gun moving, as follows:-before an object, crossing; full high for a bird rising up or flying away, very low; and between the ears of hares and rabbits running straight away. All this, of course, in proportion to the distance; and if we consider the velocity with which a bird flies, we shall rarely err by firing, when at forty yards, at least five or six inches before it. Till the pupil is au fait in all this, he will find great assistance from the sight, which he should have precisely on the intended point, when he fires. He will thus, by degrees, attain the art of killing his game in good style, which is to fix his eyes on the object, and fire the moment he has brought up the gun. He may then ultimately acquire the knack of killing snap shots, and bring down a November bird the moment it tops the stubble, or a rabbit popping into a furze-brake, with more certainty than

he once used to shoot a young grouse in August or a partridge in September.

Many begin with very quick shooting, and kill admirably well, but are often apt not to let their birds fly before they put up their gun, and therefore dreadfully mangle them, and, I have already observed, are not such every-day shots as those who attain their rapid execution on a slow and good principle.

If a rival shooter (some stranger) races to get before you, push him hard for a long time, always letting him have rather the advantage, and then give him the double without his seeing you. Having done this, go quietly round (supposing you have been beating up wind); and on reaching the place where you began, work closely and steadily the whole of the ground or covert that you have both been racing over, and you will be sure to kill more game than he will, who is beating and shooting in haste, through fear of your getting up to him, and (if the wind should rise) driving the dispersed, and consequently closest lying birds, to your beat as fast as he finds them.

Beware of the muzzle of the gun being kept hanging downwards; when so carried, the shot is apt to force its way from the powder, especially in clean barrels. If it happens that a space of sixteen or eighteen inches is thus obtained, and the gun fired with its point below the horizon, it is ten to one but the barrel bursts. There are other perilous consequences besides those that generally accompany the disruption of a barrel, for the men, horses, and dogs, are in perpetual danger of being shot when a gun is carried in the before-mentioned pendant manner.

When a gun begins to exhibit symptoms of having done its work, the sooner a man discards it the better. An injured barrel or enfeebled lock may prove fatal to the owner or his associates. Accidents occur every day, and very lamentable consequences proceed, from a culpable neglect in retaining arms which should be declared unserviceable and disused."

Grouse Shooting.-This favourite field sport, as is well known, commences annually on the 12th of August, when thousands of persons adjourn to remote parts of the country to follow it, with all its toils and privations. Among the varieties of the game are numbered the cock of the wood or capercailze; the black cock, black game, or black grouse; the red grouse, or moor-fowl ; and the white grouse or ptarmigan. The moor-fowl are the most common, at least on the northern moors and hills. The birds being hatched in April, if the summer is dry, they will be pretty strong on the wing in August. The best weather for shooting is that which is dry and warm; wet makes them lie still on the ground. No one need attempt grouse shooting who is of delicate health, or not well trained by previous feeding and exercise. The labour of walking over heather is most toilsome, and the danger of colds from rain or wet feet considerable. The dress ought to be very strong, without any regard to fineness; stout shoes or quarter boots are indispensable.

The times of day best suited for grouse shooting are the morning and evening, when the birds are in quest of food; but few are able to reach their haunts till eight o'clock, when the sport commences. "To find the birds," says the author of " Wild Sports of the West," "when, satisfied with food, they leave the moor to bask in some favourite haunt, requires both patience and experience, and here the mountain-bred sportsman proves his superiority over the less practised shooter. The packs then lie closely, and occupy a small surface on some sunny brow or sheltered hollow. The best nosed dogs will pass within a few yards and not acknowledge them; and patient hunting, with every advantage of the wind, must be employed to enable the sportsman to find grouse at this dull hour. But if close and judicious hunting be necessary, the places to be beaten are comparatively few, and the sportsman's eye readily detects the spot where the pack is sure to be discovered. He leaves the open feeding grounds for heathery knowes and sheltered valleys; and while the uninitiated wearies