234 SHOOTING. 



" To kill birds flying cross either to the right or left, allowance 

 must be made by the shooter both for the distance he is from 

 them, the strength of the bird, and also the velocity of the object 

 itself. The motion of a partridge, for instance, in November, 

 will be greatly accelerated to what it was two months before. 

 Practice alone can teach these minutiae, which if fixed at any 

 given space, or attempted to be uniformly regulated upon paper, 

 might lead the marksman erroneously in the field. 



" It may however be mentioned that in a cross shot to die right, 

 the difficulty is very much increased if the right leg is first when 

 the bird rises; the gun cannot then be brought but a very trifle 

 beyond a straight line to the right, and frequently gentlemen 

 stand with their feet thirty inches apart when in the act of firing, 

 a position that effectually prevents their bringing their gun to 

 bear upon a crossing object. When dogs point, or when game 

 has been marked and expected to spring, the walk should be with 

 short and easy steps ; the body can then be easily turned upon 

 the legs, as if on a pivot, and the bird commanded even if it 

 should fly quite round the sportsman. 



" The science of aiming accurately will be of little service, 

 except the gun is held steady from all starting or flinching in the 

 action of firing ; it is to small purpose to traverse the gun with 

 the celerity of a bird flying rapidly in a transverse direction, if 

 the person suspends that motion when he touches the trigger to 

 pull it. In this interlapse, between the beginning of the pull 

 and the appulse of the shot to five and thirty or forty yards dis- 

 tance, (be the pull and stroke of the cock as short, and the fire 

 as quick, as possible) any bird of game will, in a serene day, gain 

 progressively in its flight above two yards, and with a rough wind 

 considerably more. Quickness of sight and steady aiming will 

 never constitute a marksman, unless the motion of the gun cor- 

 responds with them, and receives no check whilst in the act of 

 drawing the trigger. 



