130 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
without an effort, to the proper place, is to fire hastily, on 
a dark night, at a lighted candle placed against a wall, at 
about forty paces distant.” 
This, it may be observed, is very well for one who is 
already “a shot,” to try a gun; but it gives no clue to the 
attainment of the skill which enables the gunner to cover 
his object quickly and correctly. What follows is ex- 
cellent. 
“When a person is nervous, or afraid of recoil, he 
naturally raises his head, and consequently shoots above 
the mark; on firing he unconsciously throws his head back, 
and then, seeing the bird above the end of the gun, he 
fancies he shot under it, when the reverse is the fact. 
“We may also observe, that if the shooter do not keep 
his head down to the stock, he will probably draw it aside, 
so that his aim will be as if taken from the left hammer, 
which would of course throw the charge as much to the 
left of the mark, as raising the head would above it. 
“The main poiat, then, in taking aim is to keep the 
head down to the stock and the eye low behind the breech. 
The sportsman, who can from habit or practice, invariably 
bring his eye down to the same place and keep it steadily 
there, so that he always begins the race from the same 
starting point, will distance all competitors.” 
This is indisputably true, and all old sportsmen, who 
shoot sufficiently well to reason on, and account for the 
causes of their shooting ill, on some, one or other, day, 
whether from being physically or mentally out of order, 
long out of practice, or other accidents, are aware of this 
habit of throwing up the head, when unsteady, at the 
