A Bit of Grouse Hunter's Lore. 197 



the dog stands silently pointing until the 

 hunter has found a good place from which 

 to shoot when the grouse springs out on 

 wing. The most successful shots in the 

 brush are not often the men who make 

 good scores in open field shooting, for in 

 the latter sort of work one learns to take 

 sight along the barrel of his gun, and in 

 the woods such sighting is naturally in- 

 terfered with. The best grouse hunters 

 of my acquaintance shoot with both eyes 

 open and head erect, moving the gun with 

 the same intuition that guides the bat- 

 ter in striking a ball after " suppressing 

 the image" of everything except that of 

 the object aimed at. The image of 

 branches and trees upon the retina of the 

 eye being suppressed at will by the hunter, 

 he is then conscious only of the presence 

 of the swiftly moving bird, and this ob- 

 ject he follows as accurately with the 

 gun as he would with his finger if he were 

 pointing out the bird to a friend. 



Very nice calculations are required in 

 order to hit the bird, however, for if the 

 gun were aimed directly at a crossing 



