8o THE COMPLETE SHOT 



occasion ; and the less time he has, the more brilliant will be his 

 work, the less time he will require. He will be able to bring 

 tall pheasants down, even those that only show 6 feet through 

 the gaps in the fir trees, with as much certainty as if he had 

 them outside and began his aim 100 yards away. But that 

 represents his very best; he cannot do it every day, who- 

 ever he may be, and whatever reputation he may have to 

 sustain him and to be sustained. 



At covert side it is difficult to be always quite ayake ; the 

 first few birds may be slovenly taken, and so the shooter may 

 go on until a difficulty rouses him to exertion, and he becomes 

 fully awake without recognising the process of arousing. In 

 grouse shooting over dogs the same differences of form are 

 seen, and others also. One shooter puts up his gun at the bird 

 fluttering at his feet, waits until it gets 30 yards away, and 

 kills it dead, and he may be quick enough with the second 

 barrel. Another waits with his gun down until the birds are a 

 proper distance away, then his " crack crack " takes the 

 farther off bird with the first barrel and the nearer next, and 

 they tumble on top of each other. The one is " form," the other 

 is equally good bag-filling ; but then these are not the days of 

 pot-hunting, and the difference between the two methods is as 

 great as between the flint and steel and the modern single 

 trigger. 



There are more differences than the mere art of killing, and 

 the manner of its doing. In walking up to a dog's point, for 

 instance, the sportsman and the mere gunner proclaim their 

 different " forms " as wide as the poles apart. The one walks 

 like the crack man across country rides, wide of the "dogs," 

 perhaps one will be 25 to 35 yards to one side or other; 

 another man may walk right at the dog and level with 

 his head as he draws on, until perhaps he consequently loses 

 the scent ; or turns and rodes the birds right between the 

 gunner's legs, or would if he opened them and failed to get out 

 of the way. In such circumstances the dog needs no help in 

 pointing out bad form in sportsmanship, although he will not 

 pass an opinion on gunning. The dogs that turned tail and 



