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SEA-FOWL SHOOTING IN THE FIRTH 

 OF FORTH. 



WE have long discovered two distinct and widely different 

 classes amongst men who are fond of recreation with the gun. 

 By far the most numerous type are mere shooting-machines, 

 whose delight is a partridge or grouse drive, when the hon- 

 ours of the day are accorded to him who has the largest heap 

 of dead birds at his feet. The plan of the campaign is 

 simple enough. A row of guns take up a position under the 

 mask of a wall, hedge, or drain, crossing the line where the 

 driven birds are sure to fly. A large number of beaters are 

 sent round to raise the game, which keep constantly dashing 

 past, or over the heads of the sportsmen. When all the par- 

 tridge or grouse are moved in one direction, the shooters 

 wheel to the right about, and the flight is again driven from 

 the opposite quarter. No doubt this requires good and very 

 quick shooting, but so does the "battue and the pigeon-trap ; 

 and for our own part, we see little difference in these three 

 lazy and luxurious modes of bird-butchery. 



The other class to whom we allude, so far as our own ex- 

 perience goes, are far less numerous. They have little sym- 

 pathy with these massacres ; and although regarding quick 

 and true shooting as the first requisite, it is no more than 

 the first the A B C of sporting with the gun. 



To feel the superiority of a man of this stamp, you require 



