262 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
fire across the face of your companion; or at a bird, which, 
rising between you, or even before yourself, flies so that it 
must cross him. When shooting, two persons together, in 
the open, every animal which crosses to the right belongs 
to the right-hand shooter, and vice versd ; and the other has 
no more right to fire at such, until he to whom it belongs 
has missed it with doth his barrels, than to fire at it when 
falling or after it is down. 
There is no greater breach of courtesy and decorum 
possible, than the violation of this rule. If it arise from 
ignorance, carelessness, or the over-eagerness and excitement 
of youth, it may be pardoned; but the person who commits 
it is likely to be avoided as a most undesirable companion. 
He who errs, as many do, wilfully in this respect, from 
a nasty, selfish jealousy, and the desire of bagging more 
birds in the course of a day’s shooting than his friend, and 
bragging of it afterward, as is the usual habit of such 
characters, may be set down at once, so far as sportsman- 
ship is concerned, however estimable he may be in other 
respects, as no gentleman. Such a partner is to be avoided 
with as much care on a sporting excursion, as is a gentle- 
man cutaneously afflicted, more Scotico, for a bedfellow. 
Shots which fly straight away before the face of both 
shooters must be taken alternately; and it is well to 
remember that it is always graceful to give the shot, espe- 
cially to a senior. 
When a bevy of quail, several snipe in a whisp, or 
more birds than one of any species, rise in front of two 
shooters, each man should invariably fire at the outside 
birds on his own side. 
