"TOUJOURS PERDRIX' 97 
hitting 498, and proud he was to show you the cutting 
out of the local newspaper which reported it. A 
really remarkable performance, especially considering 
that it was years before glass-ball shooting or Dr. 
Carver was ever heard of. Hirst only died a year or 
two ago. He must have been a great age, and I am 
told that to the last he used to talk of how he taught 
me to shoot. I am sorry he did not live long enough 
for me to have sent him this book, to show that the 
pupil did not forget his first master. 
I have often been asked whether pigeon-shooting 
from traps is likely to improve a man’s game-shooting. . 
My answer is, Undoubtedly, just as I am sure, and 
have proved to myself, that practice at the running- 
deer target is good for deer-stalking. In both cases 
the standard of accuracy necessary for a first-rate 
performance is forced upon you; and one of the 
most common drawbacks to the average or moderate 
shooter is that he has no standard of accuracy. He 
does not know what ought to be done, still less what 
can be done, with a gun or rifle. If he brings down 
a pheasant or partridge, he is content ; whereas 
broken limbs, and a mass of tail feathers, or a strong 
running bird, distress the first-rate man so greatly that 
he would almost as soon have missed altogether. 
The latter knows the bird was not in the centre of the 
H 
