278 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 
part of a second on your aim, you will miss him. A 
quail, late in the season, flies as fast as this, and rises 
with a rapidity equal to his flight. He is often found in 
coverts, dodges and twists with remarkable skill and 
judgment, frequently flies off in a direct line behind 
the thickest bush, and requires the perfection of 
training to bring down with certainty. These are 
difficulties that patience alone can overcome; for if 
shooting were simple, there would be no art or pleas- 
ure in it. 
All books on sporting tell you to fire ahead of 
cross shots, and in this they are right; but the rea- 
son they give is, that time is necessary for the shot 
to reach the object—in this they are wrong; shot 
moves infinitely faster than the bird, and for prac- 
tical purposes, reaches its mark instantaneously. 
Human nerves and muscles, however, are imperfect, 
and it requires an instant, an important one, to dis- 
charge the gun after the aim is taken. The result, 
therefore, is the same, and you must endeavor to 
shoot ahead of the bird; and if he is flying fast, far 
ahead of him. Ifthe motion of the object is follow- 
ed and the gun kept moving before the discharge, 
some writers allege no allowance need be made, but 
it is so difficult not to pause slightly, that it is bet- 
ter in all cases to allow some inches. 
To follow the motion of a very fast-flying bird, is 
almost, if not quite impossible, and the attempt to 
do so at all, is apt to create a popping habit. When 
a broad-bill, driving before a strong northwester, 
darts past, the best plan is to try and fire many feet, 
