FL YING SHOTS WITH RIFLE 211 



boug-hs of a tree, with light rifles with which it would 

 hardly do credit to a lady to hit a dozen No. 12 wads 

 at twenty-five yards in twelve shots. I must admit I 

 fail to see wherein the amusement in shootinof rooks 

 in that fashion consists. There is most certainly no 

 sport in the performance. Pot-hunting it may be, and 

 there it begins and ends. It rather tends to strengthen 

 the assertion of the French author who declared that 

 we Englishmen care less for sport than slaughter, and 

 are well content if we have a sufficiency of the latter. 



I can hardly lay too great stress on the necessity for 

 not holding either a gun or a rifle too tightly, for if 

 held loosely and easily, both rapidity and correctness 

 of aim are far more easily secured. I have often, 

 when yachting, shot birds of all sorts on the wing, 

 with a rifle made for me by Rigby, and with one 

 of his rook rifles I shot a woodcock flying overhead, 

 Mr. Fraser, of Auchnagarn, Inverness-shire, formerly 

 of the 92nd Highlanders, thought so much of a wood- 

 cock being shot with a rifle, that he reported the circum- 

 stance in the Field, and the account of it now lies before 

 me. However, there really was nothing very much 

 in it after all, as many people are well aware. Our 

 American cousins would not very highly esteem such 

 a feat. 



I have read a very lengthy correspondence in Land 

 and Water, the opinions of many well-known sports- 

 men, as to driving and shooting over dogs, and it has 

 convinced me that the one way of bagging game is 

 equally as sporting as the other, always provided that 

 the former is carried out in a legitimate and sportsman- 

 like manner. Many people advocate the use of dogs 

 throughout the entire season, but this is possible only 



