78 FIELD SHOOTING. 



the shooter is very quick. Some men say that 

 I am slow because I will not shoot until I have 

 sighted the bird; but I think these sort of field- 

 shots and my time-matches at pigeons are suffi- 

 cient to prove the contrary. I believe I am as 

 quick as anybody I ever met, but I will not fire 

 at random, and I advise the reader never to do 

 so. Late in the fall, when grouse get up a little 

 wild, and fly swiftly, it takes good shooting and 

 hard hitting to kill them. Sometimes in No- 

 vember, on a clear day and rather warm, they 

 lie close, and get up one after the other after 

 the first of the pack have gone. There are 

 always some lying scattered from the body of 

 the pack, and as one falls down, fluttering its 

 wings, another will rise, sometimes two. On such 

 occasions the immense superiority of the breech- 

 loader over the old sort of gun becomes mani- 

 fest. I have been at such a time shooting with 

 a man who used a muzzle-loader, and have 

 actually stood in my tracks and shot six grouse 

 while he was loading his gun. The grouse will 

 sometimes lie so close on a clear day in Novem- 

 ber that they will remain hidden until you are 

 within ten yards of them, and then get up with 

 a tremendous whirr of wings. It is things of 



