UPLAND SHOOTING. 237 



with good eyesight, and steady nei-ves, may attain to respecta- 

 bility, if not excellence, in this gentlemanlike and manly art. 



To this end, practice and coolness are the great desiderata. 

 Rules, I think, avail httle, if anything. I have seen men shoot 

 excellently, who closed one eye to take aim — excellently who 

 shot with both open, — never, liowever, I must admit, decently, 

 who shut both — not, by the way, a vei-y uncommon occurrence . 

 with beginners. I have seen men again shoot excellently, car- 

 rying their guns at full cock, — excellently, who never cocked 

 either barrel till in the act of firing. 



There is, however, one thing to be obsei-ved, — no man can 

 shoot well in covert, or at snap sliots, who follows his bird with 

 his gun, or dwells on his aim — the first sight is always the best ; 

 and it is deliberate pro7)iptitude in catching this first sight which 

 alone constitutes — what my poor friend, J. Cypress, Junior, 

 used to call the rarest work of nature — a truly cool, truly (juick, 

 crack shot. 



With regard to hunting dogs on Quail, there is a great deal 

 to be said ; and in nothing is the true and thoroughbred sports- 

 man more distinctly marked from the cockney pot-hunter, than 

 by his skill, temper, and success, in managing his four-footed 

 companions. 



Quail shouting, as the most difficult of all shooting, and re- 

 quiring the greatest natural qualifications, and most perfect 

 training in the dog, demands also the greatest science in the 

 person who hunts the dog. 



The great desiderata here are, first, to know precisely what 

 a dog ought to do, — and, second, to make him do it. 



In this country, far more sportsmen fail in the first — in Eng- 

 land more in the second particular. 



It were scarce too much to say, that four sportsmen, in their 

 ov\m opinion, Jiere, out of five, know so little what are the re- 

 quisite perfoi-mances and capabilities of a dog, that within 

 twelve months after buying a perfectly well-broke dog, they 

 permit him to lose all he has ever known, merely from failing to 

 exercise his abilities, and punish his eccentricities. 



