"MARK" 193 



pheasant flying high between the tops of trees, as 

 down an avenue open to the sky, than in the open. 

 So in the cornfields before the harvest is garnered. 

 And there is still another point which adds to the 

 charm found in shooting among the corn-sheaves : 

 when a covey bustles up, the birds spread out and 

 scatter, for they cannot see all the party at the same 

 time ; and so they may give each gunner a mild 

 taste of what the days of driving will bring. 



Some men have a special gift for marking a bird 



that is down, while others never know where the 



bird fell within half an acre. But marking 



* * WT s) Y*\T * ' 



is only a matter of training the eyes, and 

 anybody may learn the trick : in time the eyes accu- 

 rately note what they see almost unconsciously. 

 The sportsman cannot be too accurate in marking 

 the fall of a bird. The great thing is to take a good 

 line an imaginary line drawn from the eye to the 

 place where the bird fell : if at a far distance, the 

 actual spot v.ill be nearer in reality than it seems. 

 The accustomed eye finds points which mark the line, 

 if not the very spot, where the bird has fallen a spray 

 of charlock flower, a thistle-stem, or a tinted leaf. When 

 a bird falls at a distance it is helpful to take some 

 prominent object in front and behind to mark the 

 line such as a gap and a sapling in opposite hedges. 



A sportsman who is a master of the art of marking 

 knows where to come upon each bird he shoots 



N 



