TOUJOURS PERDRIX' 109 



never kill a long series. This immensely raises your 

 standard of accuracy, and obliges you, as it were, to 

 screw your aim into the very bull's-eye. I have found 

 it pay better to begin by shooting rather slower, if 

 anything, at very fast birds, so as to be sure to be well 

 in the middle, and as the range and size of the bird, 

 as well as often the flight, are much like what you 

 have to deal with in walking up partridges, I think 

 the one will improve you for the other. It is a well- 

 known fact among pigeon-shooters that some practice 

 at starlings just previously to a match improves your 

 form ; in the same way practice at pigeons will im- 

 prove it at partridges. This is not the place to enter 

 upon the merits or the evils of pigeon-shooting, but 

 as I said I would set down my experiences, I cannot 

 omit this one. 



Without yielding to any one in my aversion to the 

 slaughter of anything that is not a legitimate object 

 of pursuit as game or food, I would still recommend 

 practice with the gun whenever and wherever possible 

 consistently with humanity. If just before the shoot- 

 ing season you like to plant yourself in the line of the 

 sparrows passing to and from the cornfields, you will 

 be saving some bushels of corn to the distressed 

 farmer without violating your humane conscience and 

 you will find your form at partridges vastly improved. 



