300 TRAP-SHOOTING. 



was terribly baulked by the ground trap, to which 

 he had not been accustomed, when he first at- 

 tempted to kill even single birds from it. But for 

 double-shooting, as it is essential that both birds 

 should fly together, the trap that insures this is pre- 

 ferable. 



One of the worst features of trap-shooting is, that 

 it has fallen mainly into the hands of professionals ; 

 and although there is no reason for not pursuing a 

 legitimate sport because blacklegs enjoy it also, 

 they have introduced tricks and artifices that de- 

 grade the entire amusement. The use of heavy 

 guns is one of the mildest of these, for it is mad- 

 ness for the best shot in the world to match his 

 ordinary field-gun against a number six bore single- 

 barrelled piece ; and they will put a clod of grass or 

 even a dead bird in the same trap with the live one, 

 and if this is a spring-trap, the adversary will be 

 taken at a disadvantage. They deaden their own 

 birds by squeezing them under the wings, and excite 

 those of their opponent by plucking them or pull- 

 ing their feathers, and can even give them an irre- 

 gular flight. The professionals, therefore, may be 

 expected to gain a nominal superiority, and claim to 

 be champions, more from their cunning unscrupu- 

 lousness than from their actual skill, and, by this 

 fancied superiority, degrade the entire sport. 



The rules which were adopted at a convention of 

 the principal clubs in the State of New York, held in 

 1865, when the best sporting talent in the country 

 was represented, are given in the Appendix. Although 



