100 SHOOTING THE PARTRIDGE 
looked like the length of a church in front of the first 
one ; I killed the last of the five as dead as a stone. 
There must have been quite four yards between the 
tip of the first duck’s beak and that of the last, which, 
added to the church’s length, shows what immense 
allowance must be made in certain cases for cross- 
shots in a wind. 
Talking of allowance, I remember, when engaged 
in a discussion with Lord de Grey and others at the 
running-deer range at Wimbledon on the ‘throw-up’ 
of some particular rifle, we were attacked and chaffed 
by the present Lord Dunsany, then John Plunkett. 
He chuckled greatly, as he stood up to shoot, at the 
difference of opinion between de Grey and myself. 
‘But,’ I said, ‘we agree as to elevation; we only 
differ as to the amount of allowance.’ ‘Just like me 
and my father,’ said Plunkett, as he pulled trigger. 
This question of allowance is rightly said in the 
Badminton Library} to be governed by instinct, but 
the habit of never dreaming it possible to shoot 
straight a¢ the body of the bird, unless coming direct 
to you or going direct away, and on the /evel of the 
eye, can be acquired by any one, and practice will 
enable you to a considerable extent to judge how 
much in front or over to shoot. Speaking generally, 
1 Shooting, vol. i. p. 40. 
