SUGGESTIONS TO SPORTSMEN. 405 



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. If the 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, 



