284 SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 
for a week before going into the field, he will per- 
ceive the effects. 
So also, to acquire quickness: if the reader will 
throw two small objects—pennies, or the like—into 
the air, and endeavor to aim at or hit them both 
before they reach the ground, he will in a short time 
obtain such facility that he will be able to lay down 
his gun, and after throwing the pennies, to pick it 
up and hit them both twice out of three times. 
To shoot at pigeons from a trap, robins from 
trees, and even swallows on the wing, although the 
practice differs greatly from shooting at game, is 
useful to a certain extent; but steady and long-con- 
tinued practice of this nature is injurious rather 
than beneficial. It is somewhat notorious that the 
celebrated pigeon-shots are generally poor marks- 
men in the field, and entirely at a loss in thick 
covert. 
After all, however, the best place to learn the use 
of the gun, while it is by all odds the pleasantest, is 
in the field; where, amid the thousand beauties of 
nature, and under the excitement of the presence of 
game, the sportsman by slow degrees overcomes 
the innumerable difficulties that surround the art 
of shooting flying. 
Closely allied to skill in killing the right object is 
the ability to avoid killing the wrong one. A gun is 
extremely dangerous—how much so is known only 
to those who have handled it long; in spite of the 
best care it will occasionally go off at unexpected 
times, and in careless hands is sure, sooner or later, 
