INTRODUCTION xv 



the direction of having the game driven to the guns 

 rather than that the guns should go in quest of the 

 game. Thus precision and quickness in handling the 

 gun have assumed greater importance in the estimation 

 of the gunner of to-day. 



Many ardent advocates of both the gunner's and the 

 hunter's form of shooting are to be found, and so long 

 as they remain fairly tolerant one of the other, every one 

 will wish that they may derive all possible pleasure from 

 their sport, in whichever way it is pursued. In America 

 and other countries, shooters are commonly spoken of 

 as hunters, and although the term does not find favour 

 with the sportsmen of this country, it, nevertheless, is 

 sufficiently applicable to the followers of the old-time 

 methods of shooting. Of a truth, the old-school sports- 

 man derives more than half his pleasure from the search 

 for his quarry, the working of his dogs, and in pitting 

 his intelligence and experience against the wary cunning 

 of wild game. And who will deny that there is not as 

 much pleasure derivable from shooting over a brace of 

 well-broken dogs, from the making a moderate-sized 

 bag of grouse or partridges in this way, as from killing 

 treble the quantity of game by means of driving? Few 

 sensations are more exhilarating than the going out 

 upon the hills on a bright morning in early December, 

 when there is just a suspicion of frost in the air, and 

 the returning with three or four couples of woodcock, 

 having worked hard for them. Then, too, in November, 

 when game shelter becomes scanty, and partridges get 

 wild, the dropping a clean-killed right and left, as the 

 birds rise swiftly on the wing fully thirty-five yards 

 away, is an accomplishment of which any gunner may 

 feel satisfaction. The making a bag of some well-nigh 



