‘TOUJOURS PERDRIX’ 109 
never kill a long series. This immensely raises your 
standard of accuracy, and obliges you, as it were, to 
screw your aim into the very bull’s-eye. I have found 
it pay better to begin by shooting rather slower, if 
anything, at very fast birds, so as to be sure to be well 
in the middle, and as the range and size of the bird, 
as well as often the flight, are much like what you 
have to deal with in walking up partridges, I think 
the one will improve you for the other. It is a well- 
known fact among pigeon-shooters that some practice 
at starlings just previously to a match improves your 
form ; in the same way practice at pigeons will im- 
prove it at partridges. This is not the place to enter 
upon the merits or the evils of pigeon-shooting, but 
as I said I would set down my experiences, I cannot 
omit this one. 
Without yielding to any one in my aversion to the 
slaughter of anything that is not a legitimate object 
of pursuit as game or food, I would still recommend 
practice with the gun whenever and wherever possible 
consistently with humanity. If just before the shoot- 
ing season you like to plant yourself in the line of the 
sparrows passing to and from the cornfields, you will 
be saving some bushels of corn to the distressed 
farmer without violating your humane conscience and 
you will find your form at partridges vastly improved. 
