My First of September. 6i 



trim, is to look at your bird^ fling up your 

 gun, and if your eye and finger act in concert, 

 down he comes. A great deal has been written 

 lately in the columns of the sporting papers 

 about making allowances for the pace birds are 

 going, and for their flying in this direction or 

 that. T maintain that no amount of pen-and- 

 ink w^ork will teach this, and nothing but 

 actual practice and experience will suffice. 

 There are shooters and shooters, and it is not 

 every man who handles a . gun that makes a 

 first-rate shot, let his practice and experience 

 be what it may, simply because he is consti- 

 tutionally unfitted for it. I have known men 

 who could not shoot in company, but when 

 by themselves performed very creditably ; while 

 others would be the very reverse, the very fact 

 of some one looking on seeming to brace their 

 nerves. 



I knew an old farmer who often used to go 

 out with his landlord and myself, and it was 

 by a rare chance that he ever hit anything ; 

 but he always used to fire at the same time 

 we did, and then swear that one or two of 

 the birds we had killed were his. One day 

 when we were out he w^ent off for a few 



