IN SHOOTING. 133 



or seventy yards I should fire at least two or three 

 feet before the bird, if it went with any velocity. Let 

 any one of my young readers, who shoots fairly, try 

 this against one that adopts the ordinary system, and 

 see who will make the greatest number of long shots. 

 While attending to this, however, he must take care 

 not to present too low, but pitch his gun well up, or, 

 if any thing, full high for the mark. 



In shooting by guess at rabbits, or any thing in 

 covert, fire at least a foot or two before the object, 

 because, on losing sight of it, your hand will imper- 

 ceptibly obey the eye in coming to a sort of check, 

 by which you will invariably shoot a long way be- 

 hind it. 



In walking up to your dogs, in turnips or high 

 stubble, when birds are wild, lift your legs high; 

 and by thus making less noise, you will get twice as 

 near to your game. 



If a dog stands at a high hedge, go yourself on the 

 opposite side, and let your servant be sent where the 

 dog stands. When he hears you arrive opposite let 

 him call to you ; and when you are ready for him to 

 beat the hedge, give a whistle, because a bird, being 

 less alarmed at a whistle than a man's voice, will 

 most likely come out on your side. Some people 

 heigh the dogs in. This, I need not tell a sportsman, 

 is the way to spoil them, and to prevent them from 

 being stanch on such occasions. It sometimes hap- 

 pens, that there is a close twisted hedge on the 

 opposite side, so that the birds, in order to extricate 



