‘TOUJOURS PERDRIX' 107 
which leads him to strike them in the head and neck 
at closer distances. Referring again to my diagrams on 
pages 101-103, you will see that, taking the length of 
a partridge in profile (as in a cross shot) to be a foot, 
the shot in fig. 1 is about fifteen inches too far back, 
although it kills the bird, and the moderate shooter 
would be consequently quite satisfied. But there is 
such a thing as the angle of deviation, and fifteen 
inches out at twenty yards becomes thirty inches out 
at forty yards, which places your bird outside the 
possibility of being struck at all, We see at once by 
this of what immense value is the habit or practice of 
treating the tip of the bird’s beak, in close shots, as 
the point to be arrived at. To increase the allowance 
proportionately when the bird is farther off follows 
instinctively upon this habit at closer quarters ; but 
the man who cannot or will not do the one will never 
do the other, and will to the last day of his life, when 
he sees the first-rate man kill long shot after long shot, 
believe that the latter has a stronger shooting gun or 
a heavier charge than he has. I know one or two 
men who are so conscious of their inability to kill 
anything beyond thirty-five yards that they will not 
fire beyond that range; and I admire them for it, 
for they would only waste cartridges and occasionally 
wound birds. 
