THE ART OP SHOOTING ON THE WING. 253 



one in the hands of a young man of twenty who 

 is equally new to the practice of shooting. The 

 hoys must begin some time, if they are to shoot 

 at all, and to put it off reminds one of the mother 

 who declared that her son must not go into the 

 water until he had learned to swim. 



I now purpose to give such brief instructions 

 to beginners in shooting and young sportsmen, 

 together with hints which may be taken advan- 

 tage of by marksmen of experience, as I believe 

 will be useful. Two of the things essential to 

 success in the field are the loading of the gun 

 for the different varieties of game, and its hand- 

 ling when game is found and takes wing. It is 

 a common error to use shot of a size larger than 

 necessary, and very often there is too much of it. 

 A timid man is afraid to put in plenty of pow- 

 der, of which there can hardly be too much as 

 long as the gun will burn it, and he increases 

 the charge of shot under the strange delusion 

 that he thus compensates for the deficiency of 

 the explosive part of the charge. A gun badly 

 loaded is like a bad watch — it deceives and mor- 

 tifies its owner. 



The choice of guns has been already alluded 

 to, and, I repeat, beware of choosing one that is 



