. The gamekeeper at home : sketches of natural history and rural life . So, too, with a wood-hare— those haresthat always lie in the woods as others do in the openfields and on the uplands. They are difficult to slip quietly out from the form in the rough grassunder the ashstole, and all you have for guidance isthe rustling and, perhaps, the tips of the ears, the bodyhidden by the tangled dead ferns and rowetty you try to aim the barrel knocks against theashpoles, which are inconveniently near together, orthe branches get in the way, and the hare dodges rounda tree, an
. The gamekeeper at home : sketches of natural history and rural life . So, too, with a wood-hare— those haresthat always lie in the woods as others do in the openfields and on the uplands. They are difficult to slip quietly out from the form in the rough grassunder the ashstole, and all you have for guidance isthe rustling and, perhaps, the tips of the ears, the bodyhidden by the tangled dead ferns and rowetty you try to aim the barrel knocks against theashpoles, which are inconveniently near together, orthe branches get in the way, and the hare dodges rounda tree, and your cartridge simply barks a bough andcuts a tall dead thistle in twain. But the keepers lad,who had waited for your fire, instantly follows, as itseems hardly lifting his gun to his shoulder, and thehare is stopped by the shot. Rabbit-shooting, also, in an ash wood like this is D 34 The Gamekeeper at Home trying to the temper; they double and dodge, and ifyou wait, thinking that the brown rascals must pre-sently cross the partially open space yonder, lo ! just. THE keepers son SHOOTING LEFT-HANDED. at the very edge up go their white tails and they diveinto the bowels of the earth, having made for hiddenburrows. There is, of course, after all, nothing but aknack in these things. Still, it is something to Tricks of Assistants have acquired the knack. The lad, if you ask him,will proudly show off several gun tricks, as shootingleft-handed, placing the butt at the left instead of theright shoulder and pulling the trigger with the leftfinger. He w^ill knock over a running rabbit like this ;and at short distances can shoot with tolerable certaintyfrom under the arm without coming -to the present,or even holding the gun out like a pistol with onehand. By slow degrees he has obtained an intimateacquaintance with every field on the place, and nolittle knowledge of natural history. He will decideat once, as if by a kind of instinct, where anyparticular bird or animal will be found
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Keywords: ., book, bookcentury1800, booksubjectcountrylife, booksubjecthunting
