FLIGHT SHOOTING. 27? 



man should load again after a discharge, with as little delay as pos- 

 sible : another shot may offer within a minute. 



The secret of success at this sport is, dexterity in handling- the gun, 

 and the amount of success depends on whether or no the sportsman 

 has been fortunate enough to place himself beneath the aerial track 

 of the fowl. Novices at the sport are very apt to miss fair shots, by 

 not making sufficient allowance for the rapid flight of the birds. The 

 young sportsman should remember to allow the birds to pass over 

 his head before firing, and then send his shot after them, under their 

 feathers ; and he must fire well forward, at least a foot in front of 

 them, so as to make allowance for the rapidity of their flight, or he 

 might as well keep his charge in the barrel. 



There is now a good deal of uncertainty attending this sport in 

 any but severe winters : but, before the destruction of the breeding 

 haunts of wild-fowl by the drainage of moors and fens, it was a very 

 popular diversion. I have known sportsmen drive ten miles, with 

 their guns, to a favoured locality, for the purpose of taking their 

 chance as to obtaining a shot or two at the wild-fowl on their evening 

 flight ; and in those days, in the locality of which I am speaking, 

 every sportsman who stood his watch one hour at flight, was disap- 

 pointed unless he had at least one pair of fowl to carry home with 

 him : but of late years I have known men go out night after night 

 for several weeks without bringing home a bird. 



Whenever the flight-shooter is fortunate enough to meet with a 

 shot at a good number of birds, he may bring down his four or five 

 at a charge with a small gun if he is expert at the sport, and fires 

 at the critical moment ; which is the instant after they have passed 

 over his head. 



The most propitious night that can be chosen for this sport is at 

 the first and last quarters of the moon, or at the half-moon, and 

 during a strong wind, as the birds then fly very low. A cloudy sky, 

 or rather a sky which presents a mixture of dark and white clouds 

 with only a little moonlight, is also highly favourable : neither bright 

 moonlight nor clear starlight evenings are adapted for flight- 

 shooting. 



When the course of the birds is westward, and a lurid sky 

 illumines the scene, the fowler has an excellent chance of seeing his 

 birds clearly at the critical moment of shooting -just as they have 

 passed over his head. 



They generally fly in small trips to their feeding haunts at night, 



