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Show hunter sits with a siphon and Scotch oxi a. table at one elbow, and his manservant man-servant at the other. 'Presently the beaters drivo up, the birds big. Indulgent In-dulgent looking pets that most likely the keeper's wife haB raised with her chickens. Nlf the bird wont Oy. one of the beaterB gets It to rise by throw-Ing throw-Ing a stick or a stone at It. Then the hunter pops It before It can light on the muzzle ot his gun. If he misses. It Is because of the siphon and the Scotch, or becauso the man-servant at his elbow couldn't reload fast enough. But It Is all very exciting and exceedingly exceed-ingly great sport ENGLISH SPORTING ETHICS. An European correspondent for several sev-eral American newspapers feels very keenly the failure of Borne American sportsmen to live up to the Jolly old traditions of Engllsh sport. Charging their offense either to ignorance of the. rules of sportsmanship or inexperl once in the hunting field, he takes occasion oc-casion to warn them In this wise: Americans visiting England should be exceedingly chary about accepting Invitations to shooting parties. For nowhere, not even in the hunting field, Is the etiquette so 6trict and so elaborate as at a battue, which is tho usual method adopted of dealing with game at all great shooting parties especially es-pecially those wheie partridges and pheasants are concerned. Any violation of the ethics entails as much disfavor and ill-will on the part of one's host and of the other members of the house party as a breach of the most elementary rules of good manners, and is enough to give the stranger a social black eye. The offenses of the Ameikan Invited to shooting parties In England are Indeed In-deed most serious. Sometimes he neglects neg-lects to wear a feather in his haL He has even been known to appear at the shooting grounds in a sombrero and soft shirt, when everybody in England knows that if one doesn't wear a high collar and an ascot tie he can't shoot correctly. Then, there are also such things as sitting atlll and letting the bird come up and cock his eye Into your gun barrel before you blow, his head off. If some other fellow's bird comes your way you must let him ''go, for it. would be 'bad form to bring him down and thus Imply by tho acc-urhcy of your aim that your friend was a bad shot. These are bits of sporting ethics which It is well not to transgress when hunting In England, for what one really re-ally does, you know, when he goes out with his gun Is to display his new shooting olothes and his manners to the best advantage. The English hunt birds In a slightly different manner from that to which every American lover of the open fields and the woods is accustomed. When one is Invited to shoot he takes his clothes and his gun and his manservant man-servant and goes out to his battue or "station." toward which the beaters are expected to drive the coveys of plump pheasants. Thi3 battue is a sort of "blind," behind w-hich tho |
