* TOUJOURS PERDRIX 105 
shooter. I have seen in print some absurd sugges- 
tions, that you should aim on the bird and then toss 
the gun forward to where you think your shot should 
meet him ; but this is manifestly a bad system for 
every reason. It really involves two aims, and when 
birds are flying fast it is all anybody can do to throw 
quick enough in front, while the ‘toss’ never can be 
accurate. In the case of a bird coming quite straight 
and directly over your head, you may do it with 
advantage, since the gun, when put up to the spot 
you mean to arrive at, will blot out the body of the 
approaching bird, and it is necessary to point for a 
fraction of a second at his beak to keep your line of 
aim true. Butif he is coming in the slightest possible 
curve or aslant, it becomes fatal at once. 
One cannot, therefore, exaggerate the importance 
from the first of shooting on the plan that there is a 
spot in the air where your shot must strike the bird, 
and that you must raise your gun direcily to align 
that spot. A delightful phrase to illustrate the result 
of the opposite system was heard by a friend of mine, 
addressed by a Norfolk keeper to a shooter who was 
for some reason or another missing clean an extra- 
ordinary number of shots at partridges. ‘Why, sir, 
yew don’t fare! to see the birds this moarnin’ ; yew 
' Seem. 
