‘TOUJOURS PERDRIX’ 117 
but I have so often had to listen to the reiteration of 
this nonsense about rifle-shooting being fatal to game- 
shooting that I have thought it well to record these 
facts. I am very sure that either de Grey or Henry 
Whitehead of Bury, who were in constant practice with 
both gun and rifle, and no doubt others, would have 
been equally capable of doing it. 
Another important feature of good style is ‘time.’ 
There is, no doubt, one moment in the flight of most 
birds you shoot at when they are more A7//able than 
at any other. Whether this be really so in all shots 
it is hard to say, but at any rate it always appears so, 
and if you are looking on at a first-rate shooting per- 
formance you will notice that the discharge and the 
death of the bird always occur precisely at the moment 
when you feel that they should do so. A bad or 
moderate shot nearly always appears to shoot either 
too soon or too late. 
Now, “me is very essential in partridge-shooting, 
The partridge is a small and not a tough bird, and 
often very close to you, both when you are driving 
and walking ; consequently he must not be smashed. 
But he is a very fast bird, and, therefore, must not be 
allowed to go too far. If one can at all lay downa 
tule, I would say shoot soon at him when he is driven, 
and late rather than too soon when he rises near you. 
