290 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



near wing, for shot are dropping at sixty yards, the 

 initial velocity (eleven hundred feet to the second, 

 I believe) being less than is generally supposed. 

 As a rule the shot goes under the bird. I can com- 

 pare this kind of shooting with that of killing high 

 rocketing pheasants driven out of hill coverts over 

 guns posted in a valley. As with the pheasants, 

 you must swing your gun with the bird and con- 

 tinue the swing after you pull the trigger. The same 

 golden rule holds good with ducks flushed out of 

 rushes. They are rising fast, and unless the gun 

 rises at the same angle and pace, the bird, although 

 seemingly an easy shot, is missed or tailed. Speak- 

 ing of driven pheasants reminds me of amazing 

 blunders made by Americans upon this subject. For 

 instance, so brilliant a writer as Mr. Charles Lummis 

 in his excellent book on Mexico (I cannot quote 

 verbatim) sneers at the Englishman who shoots at 

 battues. According to these critics tame pheasants 

 flutter up in clouds before the guns, and are ruth- 

 lessly slaughtered.^ Not a paper of any importance 



1 Since writing the above paragraph I have read a book on 

 America called " The Land of Contrasts," written by Mr. Muir- 

 head. Mr. Muirhead is an Englishman, and in the chapter on 

 Sports and Amusements he goes out of his way to stigmatise a 

 pheasant " shoot " at Highclere Castle as " a long drawn-out 

 massacre of semi-tame animals." Amongst the guns was Lord de 

 Grey, the finest game-shot in the world. Those who have had 

 the pleasure of seeing Lord de Grey shoot know that he cares 

 nothing for easy shooting ; that he prefers to stand back of the 

 gims where the " rocketers " present the hardest shots. Mr. 

 Muirhead says : " It is certain " (the italics are mine) " that the 

 pheasants in the bag must have been nearly as tame as barn-door 

 fowls." It is sufficient to add that Mr. Muirhead, who writes 

 most ably and convincingly upon most topics, is here writing 

 nonsense. He can never have seen a good " shoot " in his life ; 



