104 VARIETIES OF SHOOTING. 



birds with unerring precision while wheeling round the 

 nest on the wing, just as there are sportsmen who, not 

 content with the difficulties of ordinary grouse shooting, use 

 the rifle on the moors in lieu of the shot-gun ; but these are 

 the exceptions ; and as there are very few Robin Hoods in 

 the present day who with an arrow can bring down a goose 

 when a quill is wanted, so these extraordinary rifle-shots are 

 more frequently heard of than seen. It must be remem- 

 bered that with these light balls the effect of the wind, if 

 there is any, should be calculated on and allowed, as should 

 also the difference of elevation in the sights when the shot 

 is taken from a spot nearly exactly under the rook. Every 

 rifle is sighted to allow for the fall which the ball makes 

 when projected horizontally, and therefore it will be found 

 that, if shot perpendicularly upwards, it will not hit the 

 mark at which it is aimed, but the ball will pass on the 

 side opposite to that faced by the shooter. The same applies 

 to shot-guns, and those who use them at objects perpen- 

 dicularly above their heads are very apt to be deceived. The 

 force of gravity here only acts in reducing the length of 

 range, and the consequent force with which the ball or shot 

 is impelled, and when the passage of these is quite perpen- 

 dicular it does not deflect them in the least. When, there- 

 fore, this kind of shot is taken, the aim must be such as to 

 allow for this variation, and in proportion to the angle must 

 be the allowance. In rook rifle-shooting at birds just 

 fledged and barely able to fly, as is the case with those gene- 

 rally shot, they will often allow of a series of balls being fired 

 at them, for the passage of the bullet makes very little im- 

 pression upon them, and beyond the explosion below they 

 find nothing to alarm them. 



RABBIT SHOOTING. 



The quickness with which these little animals evade the 

 eye of the shooter when they are alarmed renders them ex- 

 tremely difficult to shoot with the rifle, excepting when they 

 can be taken as sitting shots, which its superior range to 

 that of the shot-gun will often permit. Rabbits seem to 

 know from experience, either in their own persons or in 



