82 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 



flashes through his brain, "What! shall I shoot at 

 nothing, when behind it is a duck that I can surely 

 kill ? Fie on such advice ! I am after ducks, not air, 

 and this one is mine." He changes his aim, blazes 

 away right at the duck, expecting of course to kill it, 

 misses it; the duck moves on, while the hunter, notic- 

 ing a stray feather that a scattered shot had separated 

 from the duck, calls his companion's attention to it, 

 and says, " I hit him hard, look at the feathers fly." 



This is the experience of every beginner. 



" You have fired at least twenty times, and your ducks 

 are still to be had. You haven't killed one, look in the 

 boat ; there are at least a dozen that I have killed. I 

 thought I would let you make several misses, before 

 your attention was called to the reason. You have the 

 reason now, you are going to kill some birds, and if 

 you will only follow my advice, you certainly cannot 

 fail." 



Just then a duck came towards us quacking loudly, 

 entirely disarmed from suspicion. " Keep low," said I, 

 " Remember what I said. Hold a foot ahead of her 

 and she is yours. Kill her ! I won't shoot." 



The duck was a little to one side of us, and about 25 

 yards high. Harry fired and made a clean miss. 



"Look here," said I, " You din'dt hold ahead of that 

 duck. If you had you would have killed it. Here I 

 have been giving you the benefit of my twenty years 

 experience, and all it cost you was to try it. You prom- 

 ised you would, and forgot it within two minutes 

 after I got through talking." 



I don't know but that I spoke petulantly, perhaps too 

 much so ; anyway it had its effect on Harry, for he 

 turned to me with face flushed, and said, " Was that 



