SHOOTING ON THE WING. 61 



hand we suffer some personal chagrin owing to our carelessness 

 in missing a fair shot, we receive on the other hand double 

 gratification in killing on a doubtful chance, and the results of 

 the day's shooting will always be in favor of the man who 

 shoots at all and every chance, though he may have missed 

 three times as often as the tedious "potterer." 



Avail yourself of every opportunity to shoot, more particu- 

 larly when the Birds are scattered in thick cover early in the 

 season, as you will acquire by this means a knack of killing 

 the Birds even when they have passed entirely from your sight 

 behind the thick foliage. This knack is a very necessary one 

 in early autumn shooting, before jack frost has sufficiently nip- 

 ped vegetation with his icy fingers. This kind of shooting 

 requires considerable practice, a quick eye and a ready hand, 

 and is the style of shooting that all American Sportsmen have 

 to acquire; and it is in this peculiarity more particularly that 

 they excel the great field shots of England. The most of the 

 shooting in the Atlantic States is done in the wood and thick 

 cover, through which the Birds at some seasons can scarcely 

 force their way; and we are not astonished that English Sports- 

 men speak so disparagingly of its pleasures, as Partridge shoot- 

 ing with us is quite a different affair from going out after them 

 in the rich stubbles of their Preserves ; and what is still worse 

 for them, when they have found our Birds, they discover, 

 greatly to their mortification, that they can't kill them near as 

 often as they do their own varieties, without first serving some- 

 thing of an apprenticeship to the Sport, under the guidance of 

 some one of their friends more skilled in the crafts of our game. 

 When shooting in the open stubble-fields, we are enabled to see 

 the game, and correctly judge of position, distance, bulk, &c.; 

 but in the woods and coppices of our country we do not actu- 

 ally see, but learn to guess at all these necessary circumstances; 

 and that too without the exercise of the mind in the operation, 

 if such a thing were possible ; as the arm in most instances 

 seems to obey some sudden and irresistible impulse, without 

 allowing time for the action of the mind upon the subject, for 

 in thicket shooting we often kill Birds without ever seeing 

 them. The difficulty of killing Partridges is not the only thing 

 that the English Sportsmen have to complain of, as will be seen 



