A Year of Sport and Natural History, Shooting, Hunting, Coursing
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J nJUM M/K,gili .'X '^^,^>. CORNELL UNIVERSITY The WILLIAM D. SARGENT Collection • c^ gift to the J^aboratory of Ornithology • JOHN E. THAYER, LANCASTER. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY LABORATORY OF ORNITHOLOGY LIBRARY Gift of Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022547263 A YEAR. OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY SHOOTING, HUNTING, COURSING, FALCONRY AND FISHING WITH CHAPTERS ON BIRDS OF PREY, THE NIDIFICATION OF BIRDS AND THE HABITS OF BRITISH WILD BIRDS AND ANIMALS EDITED BY OSWALD CRAWFURD WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FRANK FELLER, BRYAN HOOK, CECIL ALDIN, A. T. ELWES, E. NEALE, JOHN BEER, P. VIENZENY, STANLEY BERKELEY, AND G. E. LODGE LONDON—CHAPMAN AND HALL Limited 1895 : c^1 LONDON GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LD., ST. JOHN'S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL, E.G. PREFACE. While superintending the literary department of Black and White, I prevailed upon a number of competent writers on Sport and Natural History to deal week by week, the whole of one year round, with these two topics. We called the series " Field Sports and Field Studies," and as the writers knew their business and how to write upon it, the papers were exceedingly popular. Among the authors were such sportsmen and naturalists as Mr. Aubyn Trevor-Battye, who has since achieved fame in Arctic lands, Mr. George Lindesay, a classic in sporting litera- ture, Mr. H. H. S. Pearse, the admirable writer and referee' on hunting of all kinds, and Mr. Sachs, a known and notable angler and writer on angling, with many others of high local or special authority as sportsmen or naturalists. As regards the artists engaged on this book their work is all so praiseworthy that I hardly like to pick and choose from the list, and elect, instead, to print their names in full on our title-page. I claim for this book, in forty-five parts or sections, that it is not a mere jumbled collection of articles, but a consecutive work dealing, in their due sequence, with forty-five consecutive and most interesting seasonal phases of Sport and Natural History in the British Islands. Oswald Crawfurd, Editor. yanuary, 1895. CONTENTS. JANUARY. I'AGE FoX-HuNTING IN THE ShIRES . I Fox-HuNTiNG Outside the Shires .... -9 Snipe Shooting i8 Wild Swan Shooting . ....... .25 Hunting with Beagles 33 FEBRUARY. The Wild Goose 41 Rabbit Shooting ........... 49 Fishing . Spring Salmon ... • 5^ MARCH. Our Birds of Prey. I. The Owls . .... 64 Our Birds of Prey. II. Hawks, Buzzards, Kites and Harriers . 72 Our Birds of Prey. III. Eagles, Falcons and Osprey ... 82 APRIL. Bird Nesting. I. Sea-Birds . 92 Bird Nesting. II. Moor Birds . 104 Bird Nesting. III. Tree Nesting Birds in Trout Fishing in Mountain Streams . ng MAY. Thames Trout Fishing . .126 The Tricks of Poachers 133 Fishing with the Dry Fly .142 CONTENTS. JUNE. PAGB Scotch Loch Fishing 146 Bass-Fishing JULY. Otter Hunting . Sea Fishing from Piers 164 AUGUST. The White Trout . 172 Chub Fishing . 178 Char Fishing . 187 The Habits of the Wild Red Deer 19s Flapper Shooting 200 SEPTEMBER. Partridge Shooting . 207 Hunting the Wild Red Deer 212 , ; \ • Rabbit Hawking H ^ .V 219 OCTOBER. Pheasant Shooting . 227 Cub-Huhting 23s Partridge Hawking . HaV-Ua' 243 Rough Shooting 251 NOVEMBER. Chantrey's Famous Shot . 259 Tweed Salmon Fishing .... 266 Hare Hunting on the Brighton Downs 271 Duck-Shooting on the Broads 283 Coursing .... 287 Roe Shooting 294 DECEMBER. December Sport in the Highlands 302 A Cock Drive in Scotland 310 'Longshore Shooting 315 .f> Gamekeepers . 320 Pike Fishing 327 .. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The Wild Red Deer Frontispiect Hunting in the Shires . 3 Hunting outside the Shires . II Snipe Shooting . Wild Swan Shooling 27 Hunting with Beagles 35 Fh'ght . Shooting 43 Rabbit Shooting 51 Tawny Owl 64 Barn . Owl 65 Long-eared Owl 67 Short-eared Owl. 70 The Sparrow- Hawk (Accipiter Nisus) . 73 The Common Buzzard (Buteo Vulgaris) 75 The Kite (Milvus Ictinus) . 77 The Hen-Harrier (Circus Cyaneus) 78 The Marsh-Harrier (Circus ^ruginosus) 79 The Golden Eagle 83 The Osprey 85 The Peregrine . 87 The Hobby 89 The Kestrel go The Tern . 93 Gull The Lesser 95 The Puffin 97 Kiltiwakes 99 Guillemots on the Needle Rock, Lundy Island lOI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. I'AGE The Common Peewit, or Lapwing The Woodcock . 107 The Great Northern Diver . 109 The Rook . ir2 The Heron 114 The Woodpecker 116 Trout Fishing in Mountain Streams 121 Thames Trout Fishing 129 Tricks of Poachers 137 Loch Fishing 149 Bass-fishing Otter Hunting . 161 Sea Fishing from Piers 167 White Trout Fishing . 17s Chub Fishing 181 Char Fishing 191 Flapper Shooting 203 Hunting the Wild Red Deer 215 Rabbit Hawking 221 Pheasants . 229 Cub-hunting Partridge Hawking 247 Rough Shooting . Chantrey's Famous Shot 261 Tweed Salmon Fishing 269 Hare Hunting on the Brighton Downs 279 Duck -Shooting on the Broads 285 Coursing .... 289 Roe Shooting .... 297 December Sport in the Highlands 305 A Would-be Poacher . 323 A YEAR OF SPORT NATURAL HISTORY. JANUARY. FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES. Bv H. H. S. Pearse. Pace, with all the wild rapture that word conveys, and nothing else, has made midland pastures the favourite hunting-grounds of English men and women who have means to justify and health to enjoy the perfection of pleasure in field sports. None but those who have hunted with the Quorn or Pytchley, the Cottesmore, Billesden, or Belvoir in their best country, when all Melton's bravest and fairest are inspired by keen rivalry, can know what that delight is. The merry men of Lord Eglinton's Hunt will say that their wide stretches of Ayrshire grass lands hold a better scent, that their Foxes are stouter than any to be found in Leicestershire, and that their hounds run as fast yet they know ; no crowds like those that congregate at a fixture near Melton Mowbray or Market Harborough. Followers of the Blackmore Vale have been known to hold very similar views as to the claims of B 2 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. of many countries that are Dorsetshire ; and the fox-hunters classed as " provincial " refuse to admit the superiority of the shires in any point worthy to command the admiration of true sportsmen. There is one hunt—in the West—certainly not less distinguished for historic associations or the social celebrity of those who assemble at its fixtures than any in the Midlands. The " blue and bluff " of Badminton must be known to fame all the world over ; Dukes of Beaufort for many generations have been acknowledged leaders in the hunting world, and the " badger- pied beauties " as they skim over the open in full chorus, or spread like a rocket to recover the lost scent for themselves or stoop to it with a joyous whimper after Lord Worcester has lifted them forward in one of his masterly casts, make a picture that might well impress the imagination of the coldest critics. Their followers are to be numbered by hundreds, and yet sport with them differs essentially from that of the shires. The Warwick- shire hounds are of the best also, and can go fast enough, as every man must confess who ever tried to hold his own with them, when Lord Wrlloughby cheered "the dappled darlings" over the strongly-fenced pastures of Shuckburgh Vale. This hunt is nearest to the shires geographically and in methods of sport, yet fashibn has not admitted it to membership of the guild, pro- bably because Lord Willoughby— though he loves pace no less than the hottest blooded Meltonian—will be master of his own pack, and will not let a hard-riding field dictate terms to him. It may be granted that all hounds go fast enough at times to run clean away from horsemen, but a brilliant episode of this kind is not quite what one means by pace in the Meltonian sense, which depends rather less on scent than on system. A certain FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES. 5 happy combination in the first place doubtless gave special distinction to Leicestershire, and the counties bordering on it. No ploughshares at that time fretted the fair surface of those old pastures. For miles in every direction there was nothing to interfere with the dash of a clamorous pack in hot pursuit. Nearly all the fields afforded good galloping ground, and the fences, though few, were big enough to add a strong spice of danger to other pleasures of the chase. These were natural advantages, however, of which the Midlands had not a monopoly, and they alone would not have made Melton the hunting centre of the world. But when the great Hugo Meynell began, at Quorndon Hall, to breed hounds for speed, and to handle them with a quickness that had been previously unknown, the fame of Quorn sport attracted aspiring youths from all quarters of England. They vied with each other in hard riding, until their keen rivalry became an embarrassment to the master and a danger to his hounds. Then the system that had been adopted for pleasure became perpetuated and intensified as a necessity. No hunts- man or hound that showed a tendency to dwell upon the line could be tolerated longer. The avalanche of horsemen would be upon them the moment they hung about, and so they got into a habit of flinging forward with a dash whenever scent failed. To have a pack that would bear to be lifted without becoming wild, even amid a bewildering maze of hoofs in rapid motion, became imperative then.