JIOIV TO SHOW PHEASANTS 135 



please them ; place your best and most active behind 

 them at, say, thirty to forty yards' distance, to nurse 

 them. This position, from the implied compliment, 

 and the sporting character of the shots they get, will 

 please the latter. The outside places, often just as 

 good as the centre, must be filled by the men whose 

 shooting and temper can be relied on. But never 

 commit the error, so often seen, of giving a man 

 nothing but outside places all day because he is a 

 bad shot, or possibly in the eyes of the world an in- 

 significant person. An angel could not stand this, 

 and I have seen the most sweet-tempered but in- 

 accurate shooter goaded to madness, and converted 

 into an enemy, by being denied the chance, perhaps 

 during three or four days' shooting, of fairly par- 

 ticipating in the amusement which has brought the 

 party together. 



You can always so nurse the position of an inferior 

 shot that he cannot materially spoil the bag by bad 

 shooting, and, besides, the amount of the bag should 

 not, in pheasant shooting, be the primary considera- 

 tion ; at any rate it cannot be calculated on as though 

 every gun were to be a first-rate shot, unless you make 

 a special effort to eclipse other records. This, if I 

 may advise you, you had far better not attempt. To 

 make thef largest bag on record of pheasants in 



