A FEATHERED SPRINTER 



WHICH is the most difficult bird to shoot? 

 You may put this question to a dozen 

 sportsmen ; probably no two will name 

 the same bird, and each will be able to 

 give excellent reasons why the particular fowl he men- 

 tions is the hardest to hit. The reason for this diversity 

 of opinion is simply that there exists no bird more 

 difficult to shoot than all others. Even as beauty is 

 said to be in the eye of the beholder, so does the diffi- 

 culty, or otherwise, of shooting any particular species 

 depend upon the idiosyncrasies of the would-be slayer. 

 To some shooters all birds, with the possible exception 

 of the coot, are difficult to bring down, while others are 

 able to make every flying thing appear an easy mark. 



To my way of thinking the chukor (Caccabis chucar) 

 takes a lot of hitting, but this species receives much 

 help on account of its mountainous habitat. It is diffi- 

 cult to hit even a hoary old peacock if the bird gets up 

 when you, already pumped to exhaustion by a stiff 

 climb, are engaged in scrambling from one terraced 

 field to another with your gun at " safe." The chukor, 

 thanks to the fact, conclusively proved by our friend 

 Euclid, that any two sides of a triangle are greater 

 than the third, enjoys so great an advantage over the 



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