HOW TO KILL THEM 155 



shot for you, will give a really good overhead chance 

 to another, you should leave him alone. 



Never fire at a low pheasant, under any circum- 

 stances whatsoever, when you are one of a party of 

 guns. When the line of beaters is approaching, and 

 may be a hundred yards off, this is particularly 

 dangerous, as what looks an inviting cross-shot, say, 

 ten or twelve feet from the ground, is precisely on the 

 level which at the farther distance will catch the 

 advancing line about their heads. 



I should hope that the day is past when it is 

 necessary to warn people against firing at low phea- 

 sants rising in front of them when there are guns 

 — or any persons — ahead. Mr. Grimble, in his 

 excellent book, has singled me out for praise on some 

 occasion when I forbore to do this. I disclaim any 

 right to distinction on such an account, and should 

 be very indignant at the supposition that anyone 

 calling himself a sportsman could do anything so 

 greedy or so dangerous. 



As I have said in the last chapter, pheasants ought 

 never to be flushed at the end of a covert close to the 

 guns. This is, however, presumably unavoidable in 

 some cases, and at any rate you are. sure to find 

 yourself at times standing pretty near the flush. In 

 this case, again, the less haste the better. As the birds 



