176 GUNS 



and so ensuring a death virtually instantaneous, 

 instead of fluffing and knocking the poor things 

 about in a manner that causes them to fly and 

 flutter on in pain — must always be a question of 

 swing, and letting your gun follow a bird, which 

 only can be acquired by practice and, as I said 

 before, natural aptitude. Of course many men, 

 especially those who have taken to shooting long 

 after their youth has passed, are greatly helped by 

 going to some of the shooting parks now estab- 

 lished round London, where the instructor, standing 

 behind, sees and tells the sportsman who is firing 

 just what he does wrong, whether aiming at a live 

 bird, rabbit, or clay pigeon. This is all very well 

 and no doubt does good, but nothing will ever 

 make a man soar above anything except extremely 

 moderate shooting, unless he frequently assists at 

 shoots in the country. 



GROUSE AND PARTRIDGE DRIVING 



At the beginning of my remarks on these forms of 

 sport, to many people the most fascinating there 

 are, I would draw the careful attention of my 

 readers, of no matter what age, to the fact that they 

 are far more dangerous than shooting in covert. 

 The reason is not hard to find. Owing to birds 

 which are driven usually flying low, unless in the 

 case, which sometimes but not often happens, of 

 partridges being put over fairly high belts, they 

 fly at a height which makes a careless shot 



