A;i UiipiiblisJied Manuscript. 



409 



keep the upper plane of the barrels level 

 to the plane of the horizon. If the gun, 

 when at yonr shoulder, is diagonal — that 

 is, with one barrel higher than the other 

 — it cannot shoot true. 



Fix your eye, or eyes — I say eyes, and 

 earnestly ad vase your keeping both open 

 — steadily on your object, bring up your 

 gun to your shoulder, and pi:ll trigger 

 the moment it is up. It will come right 

 of itself. You will never shoot well if 

 you sight along the barrel. This is the 

 reason why extraordinary rifle shots 

 never, or very rarely, shoot well with 

 the shot gun on the wing. 



Never attempt to keep your gun in 

 motion or what is called follow yoiir 

 bird, except in wild-fowl shooting ; and 

 I say not even then. 



In cross shots, allow six inches — that 

 is, shoot ahead of your object so far — 

 for every ten yards after thirty ; and in 

 very windy weather, or when birds are 

 very wild and strong, or at wild fowl, 

 twice that distance. Calculation at first 

 becomes habit, or instinct — which you 

 will. 



No man \\h.o follozus his birds can kill 

 them surely in thick covert or hand- 

 somely anywhere. 



Always beat down or across wind for 

 snipe, never iip-ivind ; for the bird can 

 only rise up-wind, and if you go down 

 on him he inust cross you, and so give 

 you a fair shot. 



In raising, a snipe always hangs for a 

 second or two on the wind and utters 

 his cry " scaipc " — that is the moment to 

 take him. If you wait as old Twaddles 

 tells you to do, till he has do/ic t%visti)ig, 

 in wild weather, you'll wait till he's a 

 mile off. 



Never fire both barrels at a wild snipe 

 — ten to one the second barrel will flush 

 a gentle one close by. 



REMEMBER— The American Angler is 

 now only One Dollar a year, 



Never .shoot across your friend's face, 

 or try jealously to take his bird from 

 him. Every bird is yours which after 

 rising crosses from him toward you, and 

 vice versa. 



To shoot acro.ss a man's face is the 

 acme of snobbishness. 



Beat for quail early in the morning 

 and late in the afternoon ; find as many 

 bevies as you can, and mark them as 

 well as you can, before noon, without 

 caring to follow them up. It is hardly 

 possible to find them when looking in 

 the heat of the day ; and your midday 

 sport must depend on the number found, 

 scattered and marked early. 



When you mark quail down, don't 

 follow them at once. They have a 

 knack of retaining their scent while 

 alarmed, and ten to one you won't find 

 them. Beat for a second bevy, or sit 

 down and smoke your cigar for half an 

 hour, or till you hear their call if 

 sooner — then you will have sport with 

 them. 



Kill your quail, if you can, any way 

 you can, except down on the ground or 

 up in a tree. They are the bravest, 

 strongest, quickest and most diflficult 

 bird to kill that flies anywhere ; and it 

 takes a top sawyer to stop a brace right 

 and left in a thicket. 



The most snobbish thing you can do 

 in shooting is not to fire at a bird you 

 iiiight kill for fear of missing. 



The next most snobbish thing is to 

 blaze away at a bird so far off that you 

 have no chance of killing. 



In shooting ruffed grouse — partridge 

 or pheasant — in broken ground with 

 ravines, keep the guns half a mile for- 

 ward of the dogs and the person who 

 hunts them. These birds have a trick 

 of running away from the dogs at top 

 speed for two or three hundred yards, 

 and then taking wing and going oft' 

 quietly. In ground such as I have de- 



