8 FIELD ORNITHOLOGY. 



a few you must secure, if at all, at 10 or 15 yards ; and your object is always to kill them with 

 the least possible damage to the plumage. I have, on particular occasions, loaded even down 

 to ioz. of shot and l^dr. of powder. There is astonishing force compressed in a few grains of 

 powder ; an astonishing number of pellets in the smallest load of mustard-seed. If you can 

 load so nicely as to just drive the shot into a bird and not through it and out again, do so, and 

 save half the holes in the skin. 



To Shoot successfully is an art which may be acquired by practice, and can be learned 

 only in the school of experience. No general directions will make you a good shot, any more 

 than a proficient in music or painting. To teU you that in order to hit a bird you must point 

 the gun at it and press the trigger, is like saying that to play on the fiddle you must shove 

 the bow across the strings with one hand while you finger them with the other; in either 

 case the result is the same, a noise — mx et prceterea nihil — but neither music nor game. 

 Nor is it possible for every one to become an artist in gunnery ; a "crack shot," like a poet, is 

 born, not made. For myself I make no pretensions to genius in that direction ; for although 

 I generally make fair bags, and have destroyed many thousand birds in my time, this is rather 

 owing to some familiarity I have gained with the habits of birds, and a certain knack, acquired 

 by long practice, of picking them out of trees and bushes, than to skilful shooting from the 

 sportsman's standpoint ; in fact, if I cut down two or three birds on the wing without a miss 

 1 am working quite up to my average in that line. But any one not a purblind "butter fin- 

 gers," can become a reasonably fair shot by practice, and do good collecting. It is not so hard, 

 after all, to sight a gun correctly on an immovable object, and collecting difi'ers from sporting 

 proper in this, that comparatively few birds are shot on the wing. But I do not mean to 

 imply that it requires less skill to collect successfully than to secure game ; on the contrary, it 

 is finer shooting, I think, to drop a warbler skipping about a tree-top than to stop a quail at 

 full speed ; while hitting a sparrow that springs from the grass at one's feet to flicker in sight 

 a few seconds and disappear is the most difficult of all shooting. Besides, a crack shot, as 

 understood, aims unconsciously, with mechanical accuracy and certitude of hitting ; he simply 

 wills, and the trained muscles obey without his superintendence, just as the fingers form letters 

 with the pen iu writing ; whereas the collector must usually supervise his muscles all through 

 the act and see that they mind. In spite of the proportion of snap shots of all sorts you will 

 have to take, your collecting shots, as a rule, are made with deliberate aim. There is much 

 the same diff'erence, on the whole, between the sportsman's work and the collector's, that there 

 is between shot-gun and rifle practice, collecting being comparable to the latter. It is gener- 

 ally understood that the acme of skill with the two weapons is an incompatibility ; and, cer- 

 tainly, the best shot is not always the best collector, even supposing the two to be on a par iu 

 their knowledge of birds' haunts and habits. Still a hopelessly poor shot can only attain fair 

 results by extraordinary diligence and perseverance. Certain principles of shooting may per- 

 haps be reduced to words. Aim deliberately directly at an immovable object at fair range. 

 Hold over a motionless object when far off, as the tra.jectory of the shot curves downward. 

 Hold a little to one side of a stationary object when very near, preferring rather to take the 

 chances of missing it with the peripheral pellets, than of hopelessly mutilating it with the 

 main body of the charge. Fire at the first fair aim, without trying to improve what is good 

 enough already. Never "pull" the trigger, but ^^ress it. Bear the shock of discharge with- 

 out flinching. In shooting on the wing, fire the instant the but of the gun taps your shoulder ; 

 you will miss at first, but by and by the birds will begin to drop, and you will have laid the 

 foundation of good shooting, the knack of "covering" a bird unconsciously. The habit of 

 "poking" after a bird on the wing is an almost incurable vice, and may keep you a poor 

 shot all your life. (Th(! collector's frequent necessity of poking after little birds in the bush 

 is just what so often hinders him from acquiring brilliant execution.) Aim ahead of a 



