HOW TO LEAEN TO SHOOT. 131 



moment of firing. The same malpractice will be frequent- 

 ly produced, even when a person is steady, by the trigger, 

 which is expected to yield to the accustomed pressure, not 

 giving way without a jerking pull ; and still more so by 

 the cap, after giving the ineffectual click of a miss-fire not 

 followed by a report, suddenly exploding a second too 

 late. The head is nearly certain to go up, and the shot 

 to be wasted above the mark. 



The writer, doubtless, does not intend to be understood 

 as asserting that, after keeping his eye low down behind 

 the breech, the practised shooter takes aim at a flying bird, 

 or running animal, as he would do with a rifle at a mark, 

 along the barrel. The beginner must do so in a degree, 

 but so soon as the facility of so doing is acquired, the 

 practice must be laid aside ; or the learner will never rise 

 to any thing above mediocrity, but must always continue a 

 poking shot. 



This is the cause which renders it so extremely diffi- 

 cult for a person, who has become by long practice a first- 

 rate rifle shot, and has grown by use perfectly one with 

 that weapon, ever to become a crack shot on the wing. 



He dwells too long on his aim, and follows or pokes — 

 as it is technically called — after his bird, and rarely 

 attains the art of cutting it down, sharp and sure, at a 

 snap shot, as it flashes across an opening in a brier brake, 

 or twists among thickset Baplings. 



The art to be acquired is this : to bring up the gun 

 with its sight on the object, or so much above, below, or 

 before it, as you intend to fire, of which more anon, hav- 



