326 SHOOTING 



a reasonable distance, his excuse always being, 

 " Choke-bore, my dear fellow — blow it to bits ; " 

 the fact being that he never hits anything except 

 by accident, and fancies by this plan that he is not 

 detected. 



I once saw a capital trick played on a person of 

 this kind by a couple of mischievous schoolboys. 

 They procured a dead rabljit, and fixed it firmly in 

 a lifelike position by means of sticks, &c. ; then 

 tying a long piece of string to each foreleg, they 

 went and ensconced themselves behind two large 

 trees in the cover, one on each side of the road, 

 about seventy yards from the gentleman's stand. 

 Putting down the rabbit, one of them drew it slowly 

 across the road, the other giving a shout, which 

 made their friend look round and immediately shoot 

 at it, when the string was jerked and the rabbit fell 

 on its side. Whilst he was reloading and fiddling 

 with his gun, the rabbit was drawn away, and in a 

 short time the game was played again ; in the end 

 about twenty shots were fired at it by the victim, 

 not one of which touched it, and the string was only 

 cut once. When lunch-time came, and the keeper 

 went round to collect the rabbits, he was saluted by 

 the gentleman with : 



" Well, Smith, got my eye in to-day. Never saw 

 such a gun ; killed at least thirty rabbits straight off 



