20 SHOOTING AND SALMON FISHING 



that the greatest mufif need not despair, if young, fond of the 

 gun, and nothing is defective with his eyesight. The first and 

 absolutely the foremost matter in shooting is to keep the eyes 

 open. We think we hear our readers laugh and say, " Just as 

 if anyone ever shot with his eyes shut ! " Nevertheless, there 

 are undoubtedly those who do attempt the feat. How do we 

 know ? Well, we will try to explain. All of us are acquainted 

 with the shooter who, times without number and year by year, 

 keeps on shooting at birds that someone else has already killed, 

 and who does not let off his gun till the bird has actually col- 

 lapsed and has commenced to fall ; yet this style of shooter will 

 continue, season after season, to claim such birds as falling to 

 his own gun, and is quite happy in the firm belief he has shot 

 them, and his claim is clearly put forward in absolute good faith 

 and unblushingly. Now, we happen to have seen several 

 gunners of this species, and as they were well known to be 

 clever, modest, and honourable gentlemen, who would not 

 dream of saying that which they did not believe to be true, 

 it puzzled us greatly for some years how such men could 

 possibly become, to all appearance, so silly when they had 

 a gun in their hands. At last, one day during a desperate 

 effort to coach one of these shooters, we left our own stand 

 at the cover-side and went to load for him ; every pheasant 

 was missed clean, and, tired of seeing them go away, we 

 turned close attention to the gunner, and at first we could 

 hardly credit our eyes, for at each shot, just as the trigger was 

 pulled, he tightly shut both eyes ! Here, then, was an ample 

 explanation of the habit of shooting at birds which had been 

 killed the second before by someone else ; for, as our shooter's 

 eyes closed, the bird was killed, and as he opened them again 

 after firing, and saw it falling, he naturally concluded he had 

 made the* kill ; and if those who are notorious in this line be 

 closely watched, what we have described will be seen to take 

 place. It is a nervous habit and by no means so uncommon as 

 might be supposed, and one of the hardest of all to cure. 



