106 | SHOOTING THE PAKTRIDGE 
fare to shute whar the’ hev’ bin.’ And you will surely 
shoot where they have been if you aim a¢ them. 
One thing that makes partridges very difficult is 
that they never, or hardly ever, come at you or go away 
from you in a straight line. The line is almost always 
a curve, and sometimes a very sharp one. When you 
add to this the variations of pace and light, and the 
necessity for shooting over, it becomes obvious that 
the calculation is too complicated to be made at the 
moment of firing, and must therefore be instinctive. 
But I am convinced that men who are beginning to 
shoot can improye themselves greatly by following the 
principle of calculation, that is, by treating the bird 
as an object that has to begso to speak, cut off or 
intercepted at a certain spot, and not as an object to 
be aimed at. 
The first-rate man will astonish you much by the 
amazing long shots he will kill, aye, and kill stone 
dead, and that very often. Forty yards (usually 
described as fifty or even sixty) is a long shot, 
but when your gun makes a good plate at forty yards 
there is very little chance in favour of the bird, 
Our friend acquires this, one of the most beautiful 
things to see in good shooting, by his invariable 
practice of allowing a good distance in front of the 
bird. It is the same system at long shots as that 
