THE ART OF. SHOOTING ON THE WING. 267 



going, and the nearer his line of flight is at right 

 angles with the line of the gun, the more the 

 shooter must hold ahead of him to kill. I have 

 had this very thoroughly impressed upon me since 

 I have been a pigeon -shooter. When a man is 

 in the field killing plenty of birds, and game is 

 abundant, he does not pause to consider how it 

 was ho missed this bird or that. He pushes on 

 to where his dogs have made another point. But 

 when a man misses once or twice in ten birds 

 from the traps, and there are five hundred or a 

 thousand dollars depending upon his gun, he is 

 apt to cogitate over the reasons of these things. 



1 had already noticed that in field-shooting more 

 of the birds got away crippled from side shots 

 than from other kinds. The reason, I concluded, 

 was simply this : the gun was not held quite for- 

 ward enough, and, instead of being in the line of 

 the centre of the charge, the bird was merely struck 

 by one or two of the shot on the outer edge of 

 the flight. If he was flying to the left, nothing but 

 the outer shot on the left side would hit him ; and 

 if to the right, nothing but the straggling outside 

 shot on the right. I began to hold more forward 

 at crossing birds, and then I found that instead 

 of being hit and getting away crippled, the birds 



