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CHAPTER III 



HOW TO KILL THEM 



To shoot pheasants well, under the usual modern 

 conditions — namely, several guns, plenty of birds, and 

 plenty of time to kill them in — there are essential 

 points to be borne in mind. 



I have laid stress in former volumes of this series 

 on the fact that it is impossible to teach anyone how 

 to shoot driven birds. This remark does not apply in 

 the same degree to pheasant shooting. To kill them 

 really well overhead, as our finest and most practised 

 English shots can do, is perhaps beyond the reach of 

 the average gunner, since it is conceded by all such 

 performers that really high pheasants, whether coming 

 fast or slow, are the most difficult of all birds to kill 

 with certainty and neatness. 



But we do not, alas ! see them really high every- 

 where, and in the matter of satisfying your host, your 

 neighbours, and your own aspirations after good form 

 so much may be acquired by attention to the points 



