Bogt7'otting\ etc, 1 1 9 



other excellent method demands a certain 

 amount of self-denial, and that is to throw 

 up the gun at two or three birds without 

 firing, a proceeding which has the peculiar 

 effect of giving you a possibly quite unjusti- 

 fied opinion of the deadliness of your aim, 

 and thus doing away with the real cause of 

 your previous failure, the fear of missing. 

 Of course, a man who is out of health, or 

 who has smoked too many cigars and drunk 

 just one whisky-and-soda too many overnight, 

 or who owes or is owed more than he can 

 afford, or is in any way afflicted with any of 

 the thousand and one drawbacks of civilisa- 

 tion, cannot expect to be in the very best 

 condition for snap - shooting. Black Care 

 perched on the end of your gun-barrels will 

 cause them to be very wobbly and uncertain, 

 and it is not every man who can make the 

 little black demon skip off at the first crack 

 of the Schultze. But I hope that the reader 

 will never have to carry so unpleasant a 

 burden on his tramps through the lonely 

 marshland. Walk licrht, O reader, with a 



