300 TRAP-SHOOTING. 
was terribly baulked by the ground trap, to which 
he had not been accustomed, when he first at- 
tempted to kill even single birds from it. But for 
double-shooting, as it is essential that both birds 
should fly together, the trap that insures this is pre- 
ferable. 
One of the worst features of trap-shooting is, that 
it has fallen mainly into the hands of professionals ; 
and although there is no reason for not pursuing a 
legitimate sport because blacklegs enjoy it also, 
they have introduced tricks and artifices that de- 
grade the entire amusement. The use of heavy 
guns is one of the mildest of these, for it is mad- 
ness for the best shot in the world to match his 
ordinary field-gun against a number six bore single- 
barrelled piece ; and they will put a clod of grass or 
even a dead bird in the same trap with the live one, 
and if this is a spring-trap, the adversary will be 
taken at a disadvantage. They deaden their own 
birds by squeezing them under the wings, and excite 
those of their opponent by plucking them or pull- 
ing their feathers, and can even give them an irre- 
gular flight. The professionals, therefore, may be 
expected to gain a nominal superiority, and claim to 
be champions, more from their cunning unscrupu- 
lonsness than from their actual skill, and, by this 
fancied superiority, degrade the entire sport. 
The rules which were adopted at a convention of 
the principal clubs in the State of New York, held in 
1865, when the best sporting talent in the country 
was represented, are given inthe Appendix. Although 
