270 FIELD SHOOTING. 



they ought not to perform so. Good guns do not. 

 I would not have a gun which shot in. It is wrong 

 in principle. 



At a quail flying fast across at twenty yards 

 hold twelve inches ahead of the bird. Some- 

 times in quail-shooting a bevy put up by an- 

 other sportsman near at hand will come by a 

 shooter, crossing at immense speed thirty or forty 

 yards off, perhaps more. In such a case hold 

 three feet ahead of the bird you shoot at. 1 

 have often done so, and killed him. At ruffed 

 grouse and woodcock in cover, and at pinnated 

 grouse and quail in corn, : snap-shots must be 

 made. The sportsman must shoot at the glimpse 

 of the bird, and, if he sees that it is crossing, a 

 little in advance of it. A little will do in most 

 cases, because the birds are hardly seen far off 

 in thick cover or in corn. For snap-shooting of 

 this sort a good-fitting gun is an absolute neces- 

 sity, so that when it is tossed up it will come 

 slap to the shoulder. 



In duck-shooting, at the morning flights, when 

 they are overhead and from thirty to forty yards 

 in the air, hold from fifteen inches to two feet 

 ahead of the bird you aim at, according to the 

 rapidity at which it is moving. Great judgment 



