HOW TO LEARN 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. 
“Tf 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 ina 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. 
“Tf 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 bea 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* 
