birds in succession, ilruck the barrels of my gun with the 

 left hand when shooting at a pheasant right over head, 

 and have found this extra 'chuck,' which you could 

 not make up your mind to give in the ordinary way, has 

 proved successful." 



To sum up the above opinions, the general reason why 

 we make such moderate practice at "high birds" appears 

 to be threefold : — 



1 . We do not shoot far enough m front, i.e., "chuck" 

 enough, owing to the difficulty of estimating the pace. 



2. The small vulnerable target, offered by the head and 

 neck, is difficult to hit, unless we either shoot with 

 small sized shot or a very fully choked gun. 



3. For birds coming straight over, we are apt to lose the 

 corredt line of flight, and in some cases to turn the 

 barrels over, and therefore to shoot crooked. 



One thing is quite certain ; it is possible to kill any bird 

 at 40 yards, and even up to 45 yards, above us, provided 

 we hit him, or her, in the head or neck, and to do this 

 one must "chuck" a lot ; an assistance to this end is to 

 bend back from the hips. 



CONCLUDING SUMMARY 

 It is interesting to compare the above notes, which, 

 including those by the Editor, may be taken as embody- 

 ing the experience of some of the best shots in the 

 kingdom, with certain results that may be arrived at from 

 theoretical conditions. I will take first one of B's ex- 

 periences. He says — "We have tried shooting at tin 

 boxes hauled up to the top of a flagstaff 40 yards high, 

 cind we were able to penetrate these, with from 1 to 15 



6j 



