FIELD ORNITHOLOGY 



the rule that you Avill shoot birds, and for this purpose no Aveapon 

 compares with the one just mentioned. The soul of good advice 

 respecting the selection of a gun is, Get the best one you can afford to 

 buy ; go the full length of your purse in the matters of material 

 and workmanship. To say nothing of the prime requisite, safety, 

 or of the next most desirable quality, efficiency, the durability of 

 a high-priced gun makes it cheapest in the end. Style of finish 

 is obviously of little consequence, except as an index of other 

 qualities ; for inferior guns rarely, if ever, display the exquisite 

 appointments that mark a first-rate arm. There is really so little 

 choice among good guns that nothing need be said on this score ; 

 you cannot miss it if you pay enough to any reputable maker or 

 reliable dealer. But collecting is a specialty, and some guns are 

 better adapted than others to your particular purpose. This is the 

 destruction, as a rule, of small birds, at moderate range, with the 

 least possible injury to their plumage. Probably three-fourths or 

 more of the birds of any miscellaneous collection average under the 

 size of a pigeon, and were shot Avithin thirty yards. A heavy gun 

 is therefore unnecessary, in fact ineligible, the extra weight being 

 useless. You will find a gun of seven and a half to eight pounds 

 weight most suitable. For similar reasons the bore should be 

 small ; I prefer fourteen gauge, and should not think of going over 

 twelve. Length of barrel is of less consequence than many suppose ; 

 for myself, I incline to a rather long barrel — one nearer thirty-three 

 than twenty-eight inches — believing that such a barrel may throw 

 shot better ; but I am not sure that this is even the rule, while 

 it is well known that several circumstances of loading, besides some 

 almost inappreciable differences in the way barrels are bored, will 

 cause guns apparently exactly alike to throw shot differently. 

 Length and crook of stock should of course be adapted to your 

 figure — a gun may be made to fit you, as well as a coat. For wild- 

 fowl shooting, and on some other special occasions, a heavier and 

 altogether more powerful gun will be preferable. 



Breech-loader v. Muzzle-loader, a case formerly argued, has 

 long been settled in favour of the former. Provided the mechanism 

 and workmanship of the breech be what they should, there are no 

 valid objections to offset obvious advantages, some of which are 

 these : ease and rapidity of loading, and consequent delivery of 

 shots in quick succession ; facility of cleaning ; compactness and 

 portability of ammunition; readiness with which difterent- sized 

 shot may be used. This last is highly important to the collector, 

 who never knows the moment he may wish to fire at a very 

 different bird from such as he has already loaded for. The muzzle- 

 loader must always contain the fine shot with which nine-tenths 

 -of your specimens Avill be secured ; if in both barrels, you cannot 



