SHOOTING ON THE WING. 57 



ordinary flight of the English partridge is nothing to compare to it 

 in point of speed — we mean, of course, a full-grown December bird. 

 This being the fact, there is no doubt that our bird requires much 

 more calculation and precision to bring it down when crossing. 



When flushed, partridges, except in sections of the country 

 where they are seldom or never hunted, boom off at the top of 

 their speed ; and if they attain a distance of forty, fifty, or sixty 

 paces before we succeed in fairly covering them, it will be neces- 

 sary to sight the gun a little in advance of them in the regular 

 line of their flight. If the birds are very large and strong, — 

 which, by-the-by, most generally is the case in November and 

 December, — it will be better to allow a still greater distance 

 between the bird and the point of sight, and then perhaps we shall 

 not unfrequently have the mortification of seeing our intended 

 victim move ofi" unhurt save the loss of the tail feathers. If the 

 course of the bird should be oblique, as is often the case, the same 

 rules for shooting will apply, save that the point of aim should be 

 about half the distance in advance of the bird, as if it were flying 

 directly across. There is another point in cross shooting which we 

 must not forget to impress upon the attention of our readers, other- 

 wise all our previous remarks on the subject will prove nugatory 

 and go for nothing. What we refer to is the absolute necessity 

 of accustoming the hand and eye to keep up the lateral motion 

 imparted to the gun when sighting it on the object till after the 

 piece is discharged. If attention be not paid to this point, and at 

 the moment of pulling the trigger the gun is arrested in its onward 

 progress, the whole load will most inevitably pass behind the bird ; 

 as the time intervening between the pulling of the trigger and the 

 passage of the shot through the air to the intended victim is quite 

 sufficient to allow of its getting beyond the point of sight first 

 caught at by the eye. 



The distance intervening between the bird and the point of 

 sight is the space granted the bird for flying through the air 

 during the passage of the shot from the muzzle of the gun to the 

 point of sight, and not for the pulling of the trigger, ignition of 



