It would have been easy to kill three or four of the covey, which was a small one, at a single shot; but it had been a late summer, and they were not full-grown.  Besides which, they roosted, I knew, about the middle of the meadow, and to shoot them near the roost would be certain to break them up, and perhaps drive them into Southlands.  ’Good poachers preserve their own game:’  so the birds fed safely, though a pot shot would not have seemed, the crime then that it would now.  While I watched them suddenly the old bird ‘quat,’ and ran swiftly into the hedge, followed by the rest.  A kestrel was hovering in the next meadow:  when the beat of his wings ceased he slid forward and downwards, then rose and came over me in a bold curve.  Well those little brown birds in the blackthorn knew that, fierce as he was, he dared not swoop even on a comparatively open bush, much less such thick covert, for fear of ruffling his proud feathers and beating them out.  Nor could he follow them through the intricate hidden passages.

In the open water of the pond a large jack was basking in the sunshine, just beneath the surface; and though the shot would scatter somewhat before reaching him, he was within range.  If a fish lies a few inches under water he is quite safe from shot unless the muzzle of the gun is so close that the pellets travel together like a bullet.  At a distance the shot is supposed to glance as it strikes the water at an angle; for that reason the elevation of the tree was an advantage, since from it the charge would plunge into the pool.  A jack may be killed in some depth of water when the gun is nearly perpendicularly above the mark; but in any case the aim must be taken two inches or more, according to circumstances, beneath the apparent position of the fish, to allow for refraction.

Sometimes the jack when hit comes to the surface belly upwards, but sometimes keeps down or sinks, and floats a considerable distance away from the spot; so that in the muddy water disturbed by the shot it is difficult to find him.  If a snake be shot at while swimming he will sometimes sink like a stone, and can be seen lying motionless at the bottom.  After we got hold of a small deer rifle we used to practise at the snakes in the mere—­aiming at the head, which is about the size of a nut, and shows above the surface wobbling as they move.  I recollect cutting a snake’s head clean off with a ball from a pistol as he hastened away through the grass.

In winter, when the jacks came up and lay immediately under the ice, they could be easily shot.  The pellets cut a round hole through an inch and a half of ice.  The jack now basking in the pond was the more tempting because we had often tried to wire him in vain.  The difficulty was to get him if hit.  While I was deliberating a crow came flying low down the leaze, and alighted by the pond.  His object, no doubt, was a mussel.  He could not have seen me, and yet no sooner did he touch the ground than he looked uneasily about, sprang up, and flew straight away, as if he had smelt danger.  Had he stayed he would have been shot, though it would have spoiled my ambush:  the idea of the crows picking out the eyes of dying creatures was always peculiarly revolting to me.