118 PRANK Schley's partridge and pheasant shooting. 



again he misses — the bird flies on most beautifully. He 

 exclaims, "did you see the feathers fly out of that bird. 

 Why, I almost picked it. If my shot had been larger I 

 would have bored a hole right through it, but my shot is 

 too small entirely." The next bird rises and flies off; he 

 bangs away with the same result. The feathers carry off 

 the meat, and he contends the bird hangs a leg, and will 

 die; that his aim was perfect, but the powder was good 

 for nothing ; that if he had good strong powder his shoot- 

 ing would be more effectual, it not being strong enough to 

 kill the birds when hit. He goes the whole day long shoot- 

 ing at Partridges and missing them, and everj^ time he 

 misses he manufactures some excuse to suit the occasion. 

 A bad shot, or unskilled sportsman, shoots in too much of 

 a hurry as a general thing. He makes no allowance in 

 shooting in a strong wind for the shot'to be drifted off from 

 a right line. He makes no allowance for the falling of shot 

 in shooting at long range. In shooting cross shots he ar- 

 rests the motion of the gun, at the time of drawing the 

 trigger, instead of continuing it in the line of flight of the 

 bird. A ba(i shot may start out and find a large number 

 of Partridges, in a day's hunt, but will kill few. He will 

 return in the evening with an empty bag, stating to his 

 friends that he found plenty of birds but they were very 

 wild, or he saw plenty of game, but, after discharging his 

 gun several times, he unfortunately lost his shot out of his 

 pouch and w^as compelled to return home, but if he had 

 not lost the shot, he would have filled the bag. Other 

 times he may tell them when he has returned from a hunt, 

 that he found dead loads of birds, but he only fired two or 

 three shots and those were very difiicult ones ; that he suc- 

 ceeded in killing two out of three, and would have killed 

 the third, but just as the bird raised, a farmer cried out, 

 "get off of my land," which threw him off his guard and 

 he missed. The balance of the day afterwards he met with 

 the same luck — just as fast as he found a covey he was 

 driven off the land by farmers, and this prevented him 

 from filling his game-bag. Bad shots or unskilled sports- 



