two acres, besides favorite spots, in which they much more abounded." On the last day which the unfortunate Louis XVI. enjoyed in the field, he himself shot five hundred and seventy-two head of Game in eight hours. It is not mentioned how many he missed. The feats of a Royal party from VIENNA, in the Bohemian territories, A. D. 1753, beginning 29th August, and continuing for twenty days, is a curious record of slaughtered Game; it contains columns specifying the names of the Twenty-three Sportsmen and Women, with the number and kinds of Game killed (commencing with Stags, Roebucks, Boars, Foxes, &c.) The Emperor himself had the greatest number of shots, viz. 9794; of which 978 were in one day. S. A. R. la Princesse Charlotte, was in the field every day; on one of which she fired 889 times-Total of Shots, 116,231-Game killed, 47,950-Far short of half. In 1788, a company of ten persons in Bohemia fired in two days 12,090 shots, when only 3,650 pieces of Game were killed, which does not amount to one-third. The following, although a Narrative of abundant Sport, cannot boast either the Skill or Success of the generality of Shooting Anecdotes; it was related in 1784, by a person engaged in the performance. "On the day before one of the annual parties at CLUMBER broke up, two sets went out, each consisting of three persons, and a bet was laid which should kill most Game. It was computed that, on an average, each man of the six got sixty shots; total 360. The winning Triumvirate killed THREE Birds! The Shooters were, Lord LINCOLN, Gen. PHILIPS, Captain (afterwards General) LASCELLES. Rev. Mr. LASCELLES, Mr. COTTON, and Lieut. Col. STRICKLAND. Here the Game had a complete triumph over their adversaries. The Ringdove, or Woodpigeon, is the largest species in England, weighing about twenty ounces, and is too well known to need particular description as to its plumage. The major part of them, in respect to this kingdom, are emigrants, departing elsewhere at the latter end of the year, and returning early in the spring. In the beginning of winter they assemble in large flocks, and leave off their plaintive cooing, which they commence in March, when they pair: they chiefly inhabit the woods, and build on the tops of trees, making a large, loose, and flat nest with dry sticks and bents; they breed twice in the year, first in April; the second brood appears most numerously in August: they seldom lay more than two eggs, larger, but alike in colour to other Pigeons, and sit fourteen days before the young are hatched. Woodpigeons are excellent eating, except when they feed on turnips and rape; they are useful in coverts that are made preserves for Pheasants, by immediately taking alarm if any person enters them after they have roosted; and quitting the trees upon which they had settled for the night, they fly about in great commotion: the Gamekeepers know how to profit by this sort of intelligence, in their search after the intruders. The Poachers, who were in the habit of using Air-Guns to destroy the Pheasants in the Preserves, were principally known to be in the Coverts by these birds being unsettled. The instrument made no noise, and the operators preferred the boisterous, rainy nights. when the moon was nearly at the full; the wet did not in the least affect the discharge of this implement, and the Keepers knew a common gun could not be effectually employed in such tempestuous weather; beside, the report caused immediate alarm, and frequent detection. Vast numbers of Pheasants were carried off, before this practice was dis covered. Rooks, although pertaining to no species of Game, yet the custom of shooting them being adopted by many gentlemen who use the Cross Bow for that purpose, and since upon the proper regulation of this instrument the whole of its execution depends, directions are therefore here given to render it useful. Cross Bows employed formerly as weapons in war, and also to kill animals in the field (where great nicety of vision was required to find those sorts of Game that kept upon the ground, for the Cross Bow was always used at motionless objects), were of somewhat the same shape as those of the present day, at least those that now throw what is termed a Bolt. The Bullet Bows are of more modern and much neater construction, and their accuracy, when once set, is astonishing: the splitting a ball upon the edge of a knife, however extraordinary it may sound, is to be performed by a Novice, at a distance from fifteen to twenty yards; and the Bow, once regulated, will throw the ball with the same unerring certainty for fifty times successively. *The late Mr. TYSSEN was partial to an Air Gun for shooting Rooks, Rabbits, &c. and was using one at Donyland Park, in Essex, when the screw of the valve gave way as the servant was pumping the Air into it; the copper ball fortunately took such a direction, that no one was hurt; but, in passing through the trees, it cut off some considerable branches. This accident staggered his confidence in the security of their principle, and from the best-informed persons he consulted upon the subject, he was convinced there was no certainty of their being safe; and he wisely relinquished the Air Gun, with all its asserted superlative properties. DIRECTIONS. When shooting where the trees are lofty, try the Bow at fourteen yards upon a level, stopping all the holes in the sight but one; if it shoots too high, raise the Bead higher on the Fork; if too low, the contrary: should it carry to the right, turn the Bead round to the right; if to the left, the contrary. When the ball does not come within the notches of the Fork, open another hole in the sight; if it shoots too high, open one lower; if too low, the reverse. Should the spring within the lock happen to fail, take care to place the open part of the new one towards the but end of the Bow; if it be put in the wrong end forward, the Bow will be useless. Never keep the Bow long in full tension, rather shoot the ball waste. If the string frets or unravels, close up the defective places with bees-wax. Care is necessary to hold the Bow steady in charging; if let slip whilst drawing up the string, it will assuredly break the stock, and probably the lath and string at the same time. The minute description of Rooks is needless; they may always be known from the Carrion-Crow by their being in flocks, whereas the Crows go only in pairs; and also by the white colour of the bill, and from their being bare of feathers upon that part in which the Crow is well clothed: and this distinction arises from the former thrusting the bill into the earth continually after the noxious worms and eruca of insects (especially the Chafer Beetle), on which they feed; they likewise eat all sorts of grain, to some inconvenience perhaps of the husbandman, yet, instead of being proscribed, the Farmer should treat them as friends, who clear his ground from grubs and caterpillars, that in some seasons destroy whole crops of corn by feeding on its roots. The manners of the Rook are singular; it is a gregarious bird, being sometimes seen in numbers so as almost to darken the air in their flight, which they regularly perform morning and evening, except in the breeding time, when the daily attendance of both male and female is required for incubation, or feeding the young; and it is observed they do both alternately. They begin to build in March; one bringing materials, while the other watches the nest, lest it should be plundered by its brethren: they lay five or six eggs, of a pale green colour, marked with small brownish spots. After the breeding season, Rooks forsake their nest-trees, going to roost elsewhere; but return to them in August, and again in October, when they repair their nests. The young birds are very good when skinned, steeped in milk, and afterwards put into a pie; and variety of decisions in their favor have been given by accurate judges, who have loudly extolled the goodness of the Pigeons they have been eating, and that it was impossible not to distinguish the rankness of the Rook, how. ever highly seasoned, from the fine flavour of the Pigcon. Mr. GILPIN, in speaking of this bird, says, "of all the feathered inhabitants of the FOREST, I should have thought its scenes in all respects the best adapted to the Rook; here he might build his habitation, and rear his young, far from the prying eyes of men; here also he might indulge his social temper without limits, and enlarge his aerial town from wood to wood: but he has no such ideas. I cannot learn that he ever thought of forming a settlement in the Forest, which is the more extraordinary, as he is in fact a lover of its scenes, and rejoices in them at all times, but in the breeding season, when one should imagine he stood most in need of their shelter. At that time he seems sedulously to court the faithless habitations of men, through what propensity or instinct of Nature the Naturalist is at a loss to determine. After his family is reared, and he has carried off in safety such of his progeny as have escaped the arts of men and boys, he retires every evening at a late hour, during the Autumn and Winter months, to the closest coverts of the Forest, having spent the day in the open fields and inclosures in quest of food. His late retreat to the Forest is characteristic of the near approach of night. Retiring from the downs, where all day long But in his economy, continues Mr. G. there is something singular. Although the Forest is his winter habitation (if I may call that his habitation, which, like other vagrants, he uses only as a place to sleep in), he generally every day visits his nursery, keeping up the idea of a family, which he begins to make provision for very early in the Spring. Among all the sounds of Animal Nature, few are more pleasing than the cawing of Rooks. The Rook has but two or three notes, and when he attempts a solo, we cannot praise his song, but when he performs in concert, which is his chief delight, these notes, although rough in themselves, being mixed and intermixed with those of the multitude, have all their sharp edges worn off, and become harmonious, especially when softened in the air, where the bird chiefly exhibits. You have this music in perfection, says Mr. G. when the whole colony is raised by the discharge of a gun." In noticing the acquired knowledge of animals, Dr. DARWIN has remarked, “ that this knowledge is most nicely understood by the Rook, who build, as it were, cities over our heads; they evidently distinguish that the danger is greater when a man is armed with a gun. Every one, says the Doctor, has seen this who in the spring of the year has walked under a Rookery, with a gun in his hand: the inhabitants of the trees rise on their wings, and scream to the young to shrink into the nest from the sight of the enemy. The vulgar, observing this circumstance so uniformly to occur, assert that Rooks can smell gunpowder." Mr. WHITE, in his History of Selborne, speaking of the evening manœuvres of Rooks in the Autumn, remarks, "that just before dusk they return in long strings from the foraging of the day, and rendezvous by thousands over Selborne Down, where they wheel round, and dive in a playful manner in the air, exerting their voices; which, being softened by the distance, becomes a pleasing murmur, engaging to the imagination, and not unlike the cry of a pack of hounds in hollow echoing woods. When this ceremony is over, with the least gleam of light they retire for the night to the deep beech woods of Tisted and Repley. We remember, says Mr. W. a little girl, who, as she was going to bed, used to observe, on such an occurrence, in the true spirit of Physico-Theology, that the Rooks were saying their prayers; and yet this child was much too young to be aware that the Scriptures have said of the Deity—that " He feedeth the Ravens who call upon him.” The continuation of the subject of Shooting naturally introduces the important articles of Ammunition, and the Gun. The first will be briefly touched upon, and the great and solid improvements that have of late years been made by the WORKMEN of this country, have rendered a prolix account of the last less requisite than before these successful effects of their labours. The progress of their Art, from forging to finishing the Barrel or the Lock, has little occasion to be now copiously treated of. Gunpowder was invented in the year 1330, by SWARTZ of Cologne, and first made in England A. D. 1418. From the number slain in engagements previous to its introduction, what at first view of its fatal effects might be deemed an additional and severe scourge, has rather proved beneficial to Mankind, by reducing the destruction of the species in battle, within narrower limits. In providing Man with increased power over the Animal world, and multiplying the catalogue of his food, its advantages are eminent; and at the present day, Gunpowder is so essential to the Sportsman's success, that its goodness should be his chief concern in his Shooting equipment. |