130 SHOOTING. 



If such a person, therefore, has a pride about him, 

 and wishes to be thought a great shot, let him throw- 

 aside his double barrel ; and, under the plea of having 

 only one charge to depend on, he may come off with 

 great eclat among the average of shooters. 



With regard to the distance, which constitutes a 

 fair shot, there is no speaking precisely ; but, as far as 

 such things can be brought to paper, and guns to an 

 average, I should say, that, provided a gun is held 

 straight, a bird should scarcely ever escape at forty 

 yards; and that that is the outside of point-blank 

 range, although, at fifty yards, the chances are three 

 to one in favour of killing, with & good aim; but as a 

 gun never shoots twice alike, a bird, at this distance, 

 may sometimes be struck with three or four shot, and, 

 at others, may escape through an interval, though the 

 piece be never so well directed. But, if a pellet should 

 take a bird in a vital part, or the wing, at seventy or 

 even eighty yards, it would probably come down, 

 though the odds (at such distances) are, of course, 

 against your hitting it at all. J$\i&$ flying straight 

 away, or coming to you, require a much harder blow, 

 than those crossing m flying directly over your head; 

 by reason that, in the first instance, they are partly 

 shielded by the rump, and, in the second, the feathers 

 are apt, at long distances, to glance the shot. 



Under these circumstances, a man MUST either PICK 

 his SHOTS or occasionally MISS, though his gun be every 

 time held straight. I may venture to say, there is no 

 sportsman living who has not been known to miss the 

 fairest shots ; and there are very few but now and then 

 in a season will shoot badly for a whole day. It stands 

 to reason when the most skilful may become, for a time, 



