74 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 
he may resolve to learn something about the sport and renew 
his efforts. In most sports with the gun, especially driven- 
game shooting, it is most essential that the sportsman 
must be a good shot. This is no less true in the par- 
ticular form of shooting under discussion if the gunner 
would excel, though in comparison many more items of 
importance are indispensable to the skilful shore-shooter. 
Amongst his quarry are some of the wariest and hardiest 
species of birds, which can only be secured in numbers under 
the most trying meteorological conditions. These circum- 
stances require the shooter to be sound in every limb and 
constitutionally equal to the occasion. Shore -shooting, 
especially in winter, is not a sport for the weak and delicate ; 
indeed, it would be very harmful. For the strong, shore- 
shooting is one of the most hardy, invigorating, and interest- 
ing classes of shooting that a healthy man can indulge in. 
Broadly speaking, there is in our islands no kind of bird- 
shooting equal to this, when the sport is good. All manner 
of shots may be presented to the marksman, from the 
busy, bustling teal, to the heavy and comparatively labour- 
ing grey goose, intergraded with the smart little redshank and 
the stately-moving curlew. The flight of all these birds is 
so different that the shore-shooter must be a skilful shot 
to account for all. This involves keen and accurate sight, 
and a practised knowledge of correctly judging distance. 
These are but a few of the primary qualifications of the 
shore-shooter. 
Preliminary lessons at shooting schools are of inestimable 
benefit to the beginner, but the art of shore-shooting can only 
be practised and perfected on the shooting grounds which are 
the homes of shore-birds and wildfowl. It is of importance 
that the gun ‘‘fits” the shooter, or good results in shooting 
cannot be expected. Any respectable firm of gunmakers will 
gladly build a gun to suit any gunner, but it must not be 
