HOW TO KILL THEM 153 



over your heads at an easy killing distance. If these 

 are very few in number and come singly you may kill 

 them all. But if there are many, especially where the 

 management is good, you are only expected to kill 

 your fair share of what come over you individually. 

 In nine cases out of ten you will see the same birds 

 again, and at any rate the owner of the shooting cal- 

 culates his day on the basis that a good number will 

 escape for another day and for breeding. 



This disposes at once of all necessity for haste. 

 There can be no rivalry, or reason for scoring a large 

 individual bag of pheasants, and though you ought to 

 shoot freely, nay rapidly, at times, divest yourself 

 once and for all of the idea that every bird must be 

 secured at all hazards, as though he were a royal stag 

 or a white rhinoceros. I am all for keenness, especi- 

 ally in the young — no man is much good at sport with- 

 out it — but there is a particular class of keenness, 

 closely allied to jealousy, which when displayed by one 

 of a party for covert shooting is most objectionable. 



Do not, therefore, be too anxious to secure every 

 individual bird ; there is never any excuse for this, 

 unless when you are killing cocks only, and are 

 specially asked to realise every possible shot. Shoot- 

 ing pheasants should be a more or less dehberate 

 performance ; roughly speaking, they should be shot 



