116 PRANK Schley's partridge and pheasant shooting. 



THE BAD SHOT, OR UNSKILLED SPOETSMAN. 



^HE bad shot or unskilled sportsman is generally a 

 man who possesses but little idea of discrimination, 

 and one who lacks keen observation and judgment. 

 He is an excitable and self-willed sort of fellow, and 

 when a Partridge rises he becomes so overwhelmed with 

 anxiety, being afraid he will not kill the bird, that, very 

 often, he fires without taking aim, and of course the bird 

 goes on without being hit. When a covey of Partridges 

 rises he bangs away in a hurry without selecting out one 

 bird of the covey to fii-e upon. The consequence is he fails 

 to kill, but thinks he ought to have killed at least half a 

 dozen. He magnifies a small covey of ten or twelve birds to 

 be the largest number he ever saw in one covey, and thinks 

 fort}' birds must have arisen, and that he ought have killed 

 five or six of them at the lowest. The whole covey flies 

 off without being watched, or marked down, and after the 

 excitement wears away, and the gun is recharged, he starts 

 off in a great hurry, antl goes hunting around and about to 

 find where the birds have gone, and perhaps will spend a 

 half day searching before he finds them, whereas by a lit- 

 tle observation at the time of flushing the covey he could 

 have marked the birds all down to a certainty. The bad 

 shot or unskilled sportsman is no judge of distances when 

 in the field. Sometimes he fires way out of range of the 

 gun where there is no possible chance of killing. At other 

 times he fires so very close that if the bird is hit it is torn to 

 pieces, and, perhaps, will not be in a condition to carry 

 home. On the other hand, should the bird be hit at a long 

 distance, it will possibly just have its wing tipped. If this 

 is the case, a regular foot race will immediately ensue with 

 the dog and the man, and if you accompany him, unless 



