HOW TO LEAKN TO SHOOT. 129 



of aim must be attributed to the eye not being in the proper 

 place when the aim is taken. 



" The habit of missing seldom arises from inability to 

 throw the end of the gun straight upon the bird ; but from 

 the eye not being directly behind the breech, which it 

 necessarily must be for good shooting. 



" If there were a sight at each end of the barrel," as 

 there is in the rifle, " it would be requisite to keep shifting 

 the gun, until both sights were in a line between the eye 

 and the mark ; that, however, with a gun not well mounted 

 to the eye and shoulder, would be too complex an opera- 

 tion ; for, before it could be accomplished, a swift bird 

 would be out of reach ; it follows, then, that the shooter's 

 attention should be directed only to the sight at the top 

 of the barrel, and the breech end should come up mechan- 

 ically to the proper level. 



" If the sportsman will take aim alternately at objects 

 on his right, on his left, on the ground, and in the air, 

 without moving his body or taking his gun from his shoul- 

 der, he will at once see the difficulty of keeping the eye 

 directly behind the breech. To be a proficient in shoot- 

 ing, he must in some way be able to do that mechanically ; 

 for, when aiming at a moving object, his attention can only 

 be paid to placing the end of the gun on that object. 

 When bringing up a gun to the shoulder in a gunmaker's 

 shop, it is easy to bend down the head to the exact spot 

 for looking along the sight-plate ; but it is a very different 

 thing when shooting at birds on the wing. The best way 

 to prove whether a stock suits, or, in other words, whether 

 the user of it can bring it up, as it were, mechanically, and 

 6* 



