The Quail 31 



five yards or less. At such a distance, the smallest 

 of guns should, in good hands, prove sufficiently 

 effective, but that is not the important point. If 

 a gun be of fourteen, sixteen, or twenty gauge, it 

 needs must be of first-class grade to be reliable 

 and safe to use. Hence, a man must have a 

 special gun for, say at a liberal estimate, the first 

 half of the season ; and later on, after the birds 

 have become educated and the cover is not so 

 abundant, the shooting range is materially in- 

 creased, whereupon the small gun is at once at a 

 disadvantage. Worse than that, entirely owing 

 to lack of power, the use of it in skilled hands is 

 certain to mean a lot of wounded birds. Then, 

 again, the small gun is good only for close-rising 

 quail, woodcock, and snipe, which means that a 

 second, heavier gun must be kept for all-round 

 work. In this event, the change of arm is not 

 calculated to improve one's shooting. Another 

 disadvantage of the smaller guns lies in the diffi- 

 culty of procuring suitable ammunition in an 

 emergency. Of course, the resident of a large 

 city may readily buy shells of any size and load, 

 but quail-shooting is not a characteristic sport of 

 the streets of a large city. The best of it is 

 found where stores are few and rush orders not 

 a specialty ; hence, an accident or a misdirected 

 package may mean the ruination of a hard-earned 

 holiday. Any mishap to the man using the odd- 



