108 FRANK SCHLEY'S PARTRIDGE AND PHEASANT SHOOTING. 



THE EXCITABLE SPOBTSMAK 



)ME sportsmen, when shooting, are subject to ungov- 

 ernable excitement, and all they can do to restrain 

 this feeling, at the time, seems to serve only to in. 

 crease it, and they find it impossible to become cool 

 and calm. Therefore, it is a great drawback, and prevents 

 them from becoming accurate marksmen (sportsmen who 

 are so unfortunate as to be inflicted in this way.) It will 

 depend altogether upon the state of his mind or nerves as to 

 whether the sportsman will shoot well or ill. If he shoots 

 well it will be at the time when he has the least anxiety about 

 killing his game, or when he is most successful in his shoot- 

 ing. One or two clean misses, or unsuccessful shots, or 

 balks in the morning, will generally upset the whole day's 

 shooting with him. He will become over-anxious to kill, 

 and over-anxiousness will bring on nervousness, and over- 

 whelmed with excitement his nerves will become unstrung, 

 and under these circumstances he will be likely to continue 

 to shoot badly the balance of the day. But should the ex- 

 citable sportsman be successful in the morning, and kill, 

 clean, two or three birds, or bring down a doubtful shot, 

 this will give him confidence, and he will continue to shoot 

 good the whole day, or at any rate so long as everything 

 goes evenly and smoothly with him. But if the least tri- 

 fling circumstance should change the case, or make it other- 

 wise, it will cause him to shoot badly, or at all events very 

 uncertainly. An excitable sportsman is very precarious in 

 his shooting. When a covey springs suddenly the noise or 

 whirr of the birds' wings throws him oif his guard. He 

 excitedly pitches the gun up, and in a flash blazes away, in 

 a hurry, without taking any aim. When walking up to a 

 dog that is pointing a covey, where the birds are all scat- 



