2O8 INFLUENCE OF WEATHER ON SHOOTING. 



and both should be prepared for the special 

 obstacles they may have to overcome. For 

 instance, the size of shot to be carried, the 

 class and character of dog to be used, may 

 have to be considered with reference to the 

 state of the weather, and the consequent flight, 

 the shyness, or the reverse of the birds. It 

 is a knowledge of details such as these that 

 tends to make shooting an art, and which 

 should distinguish it from the mere busi- 

 ness of the gamekeeper. A knowledge of 

 the nature of the soil is directly serviceable 

 to the naturalists, for whom, indeed, the 

 sportsman should always act as a pioneer, 

 contributing to the stock of science as many 

 new facts as he can pick up in his rambles 

 with a gun. I have no doubt but that the 

 meteorological changes which this climate has 

 said to have definitely undergone within the 

 last fifty years must have had a most impor- 

 tant effect upon the marked diminution of 

 wild fowl, a diminution as distinct and as de- 

 structive as that which has been attributed 

 to the draining of waste lands and the making 

 of railroads. 



