184 



muzzle, which has been so much, and you will 

 by this time begin to perceive how justly, 

 reprobated. 



MAKE READY ! Or rather MARK ! for that 

 is the sportsman's word by which, if in com- 

 pany, and not in immediate view of the spring, 

 he will expect to have his attention roused to 

 the game now on wing, as his object or mark*. 

 I beg here to take you back to that precise 

 attitude in which I left you standing, in order 

 to find the balance of your position : and you 

 will be pleased to recollect, that the disposition 

 of your lower limbs, as given under the order to 

 take form (see p. 171), must, at the same moment, 

 accompany the action which we are about to 

 give to your upper ones. At the instant then of 

 taking form, " Let your eye be darted firm and 

 irremoveable upon its object: throw the but of 

 your gun from you to an easy extent of both 



* In situations where a laxity of law on the subject of 

 shooting hares is allowable, or where rabbit shooting makes 

 part of the diversion in cover, it is of importance to give 

 immediate notice to a companion of an object on foot, or on 

 wing; to the latter of which, the word "Mark!" must be 

 exclusively confined ; and for the former, instead of the 

 clumsy phrase of "Mark the ground!" which obtains in 

 some places, the neater expression of " Mind !" should be 

 employed, as making a more explicit distinction between fur 

 and feather. 



