frequently disturbed. They will sometimes take a turn from the direction in which they at first appeared bent upon, and fly off to a field which has been a favourite resort. It is close attention, when in sight, to their various manoeuvres that will enable a man to become useful in this occupation. Pheasants are yet more difficult to mark than partridges; they very frequently fly further than they appear to do, and very commonly run after they have dropt: they will also skim along by the side of a hedge, so that they can only be seen at intervals; this creates a great impediment to marking them accurately. I am not inclined to think it is a good plan to go up to the place immediately, although the bird may be marked down to a yard, as in nine cases out of ten he is sure to set off and run when he hears your approach. It is far better to give him time to settle: he will not be so much on the qui vive, and if he should have run, a scent will be left to enable your dog to draw upon him, providing too great a space of time be not lost; besides which, he will not run near so far as he would do if he found you were in immediate pursuit of him. In order to mark woodcocks successfully, the nature of the country must be taken into consideration, and one or two persons should be stationed on the outside of the covert on an elevated spot; at all events, one where the most extensive view can be commanded. When those who are beating the covert spring one of these birds, they should instantly proclaim, "Mark, cock!" with an intimation where, such as right, left, up, or down; which expressions should be clearly explained to the markers and all in company, before commencing operations: this is necessary because the smallness of these birds, their very quiet manner of flying, and their colour may not be sufficiently conspicuous to attract the eyes of the markers; and as soon as they have gained the height of the trees, they skim along close to the tops until they have reached the outside, when they usually descend nearly to the ground, or, if the wood be large, fall into it again at some spot to which they have previously resorted. Their usual places of resort when not in covert are ditches, hedge-rows in moist situations, often in old unfrequented lanes, and in the sides of pits or ponds; but they will sometimes, when flushed, drop in the middle of fields, especially fallows, where they will lie as closely as possible. These circumstances are worthy of attention, inasmuch as in cases when the bird cannot be exactly marked, the most likely places should be beat for the purpose of re-finding him; but when that has been done without success, other parts must be tried, for it is very unsatisfactory to go away and leave a woodcock in the open. Marking snipe usually devolves upon the shooter himself, and is a duty which he can perform in general without an assistant, unless great numbers rise at once, when to mark them all would be impossible; but as their haunts are on bogs and marshes, which are generally open tracts, the operation is in general not a difficult one. (To be continued.) A NEW SONG TO AN OLD TUNE. BY GELERT. "Et leporem cauibus, canibus venabere vulpes." Some explanation is due to the regular craftsman who may cast his eye over the annexed verses, seeing that the system of running foxes with harriers is somewhat illegitimate, and not quite in accordance with his notions of sporting propriety, at least in a civilized country, and that too in the nineteenth century. The writer was an eye witness of what he describes in song, and never remembers to have been present at a "burster" which better deserved to be commemorated. The run took place in a region in Devonshire, scarcely within a day's ride (mirabile dicta) of a pack of foxhounds. It was, accordingly, no man's "country;" and being a gameless district, the injury done to poultry by foxes may be pleaded as some excuse for this irregular mode of pursuing the noble animal. Besides the suffering hen-wife is entitled to retributive justice in the absence of all "damage funds," for long and loud are her lamentations when Charley Fox makes a descent upon her poultry-yard and gets the run of his teeth there for an hour or so. The air to which the words have been applied is a very old one, entitled "Dick Sion Dafydd," and, from its sprightly description, is well adapted for a hunting song. The language is somewhat vernacular, where the civilized reader will most probably find himself at fault. Air of " Dick Sion Dafydd." 2 Come list to me, my gallant hunters, 'Tis of a merry pack of harriers Tow row row, tow, &c. They met one morn in Cow-park bottom, Tow row row, tow, &c. In tops and cords of honest brown, sir, But hark! what cries assail their ears all; Tow row row, tow, &c. The Squire saw his roast was done for, Tow row row, tow, &c. The merry music burst like thunder, 'Twas a mourning peal to the varmint's heart; But still he swore he'd not knock under, He'd show them he could play his part. Tow row row, tow, &c. Like a flock of pigeons well together, Away they went at a busting pace O'er hill and dale, through copse and cover- Tow row row, tow, &c. For fifty minutes they had pressed him, Before them rolled a rapid river, And straight for it he shaped his course; The hounds and varmint got well over, But the Squire got in, both he and his horse. Tow row row, tow, &c. "Have at him, there," said the Squire, sputt'ring; "That's a cold bath, Jack, without expense; But hark to the hounds, they're getting forward, We needs must clear that rasping fence." Tow row row, tow, &c. Not a field ahead was the gallant varmint, His strength nigh spent, though his pluck was good; Tow row row, tow, &c. But now they neared a well-known cover, Tow row row, tow, &c. The Squire now, like a true-born hero, Tow row row, tow, &c. CORAL FISHERIES. BY SARON. "And when we meet with stores of gems, T. MOORE. Coral figured among the ornaments of the Roman ladies in the times of Pliny; in the middle ages it was also highly valued. In the earliest years of his reign, Francis I., who, all frivolity apart, wished to promote a trade which connected his policy with African interests, recommended coral to his court. Richelieu and Colbert, with similar views, strove to bring it into fashion, as did Napoleon, who succeeded in this undertaking. Since 1836 it has gradually disappeared, not being sufficiently costly for the drawing-rooms of the present day. But amongst those vicissitudes these fisheries have not been deserted. Fashions which have disappeared in France have gone and reigned elsewhere, their disappearance has been but a removal; and we may trust in the continuance of a taste which has periodically revived in Europe in a lapse of eighteen centuries. Some dependence may, besides, be placed on an industry whose produce the dark-coloured nations of the other three parts of the world have never ceased to value. From time immemorial the coral fishery has taken place on the coasts of Italy, Corsica, Sicily, and Sardinia; but the superiority of African coral has been acknowledged for seven or eight centuries past. At the beginning of the twelfth century *The dungeon of Pyles, a famous fox-holt on Dartmoor. their fisheries rendered prosperous the inhabitants of a town called Mers-el-Djoux, situate to the north of Badja, the vestiges of which are now almost obliterated on the coast. When the Pisans had to seek on the coast of Africa the commercial channels which they were losing in the east, this industry attracted their attention, and the main object of the treaty they concluded in 1167, with Abdallah Bogoras, Sultan of Tunis, was the concession of the coral fishery. In order to carry it on, they formed an establishment at Tabarca. About the year 1300 Abulfeda mentions the Bona fisheries. At a later period the fishery passed into the hands of the Catalans. In 1446 the fisheries on the coast of Tunis, which then extended to the east as far as Badgia, were let to a Barcelonese. In 1551 the Genoese fished coral at Bona, and their boats were stationed at two leagues to the north of that town, under the protection of the fort that still bears this name. At about the same period, Charles V. having bestowed on the house of Lomellin, of Genoa, the island of Tabarca, which Soliman II, had ceded to him, the Genoese establishment was transferred to it, and coral fishing became one of its principal objects; when, in 1741, the Tunisians destroyed it, thirty-four boats and two hundred and seventy-five sailors were employed in this fishery. Previous to 1561 the French had made but few individual attempts at coral fishing. The first Frenchmen who embarked in it regularly were two Marseilles merchants, Thomas Linches and Carlin Didier. In virtue of a convention with the Mayool tribes and Soliman II., they formed, in 1561, in the Bastion de France Creek, at twelve leagues east of Bona, an establishment, which had many a vicissitude to undergo. Linches ruined himself in it. The fishery was finally acquired by France, through the treaty of the 20th of May, 1604, concluded at Constantinople with Amurath III. In 1741, at the moment when the destruction of the Genoese settlement removed the only competition that France had to dread, the newly established Compagnie d'Afrique gave a regular and permanent organization to the coral fishery; and it is from that time that we have trustworthy documents relative to that branch of industry. All the company's sailors were natives of Provence; its boats were built at Marseilles. Each boat's crew consisted of seven men. The annual fishing of a boat was valued at 1,200lbs, which, at the average price of 8 francs, yielded 9,600 francs. The expenses, including the crew's provisions, amounted to 5,850 francs. The company had not above forty to fifty boats. It must not, however, be inferred that it gained by the fisheries only about 20,000 francs: it sold to the Marseilles manufacturer for 15 to 20 francs the coral which it received at 8 francs, and thus obtained a net profit of 300,000 to 400,000 francs for an advance inferior to that sum. Exercised all the year round, the coral fishers of Provence acquired a dexterity the secret of which will be discovered only when the organization of their labour shall be adopted. Seven men did twice as much as ten do now; and ten hours' labour yielded more than eighteen do at present. This peaceable property was disturbed in 1780; the Corsican |