i6o SHOOTING THE PHEASANT 



feathers, you will have made a bad shot, and the 

 bird will be unfit for the table of even your bitterest 

 enemy. 



When, as occasionally happens, it is necessary to 

 kill a pheasant very near you, this principle becomes 

 still more vital, and you must learn to account yourself 

 a better man should you miss him altogether by shoot- 

 ing in front, than should you kill and mangle him by 

 being five inches too far back. It is not so difficult 

 to ' neck ' a close pheasant as one might imagine, 

 and if you proceed on the principle I laid down in 

 the volume on the ' Partridge,' viz. that you never 

 have to shoot at a bird (unless going from or coming to 

 you quite straight, and on the level), but at the spot 

 in the air where the shot will intercept him ; and 

 further, if you treat his head and neck as represent- 

 ing the whole bird, you will find that you can slay 

 a great proportion of the closest pheasants without 

 spoiling the flesh of any, while putting them to the 

 most artistic and merciful death possible. 



It must not be supposed that I claim that this feat 

 can be performed every time by anybody ; there would 

 no longer be any pleasure in shooting if there were 

 no missing ; and no zest in the pursuit of any sport 

 or game if the element of uncertainty were entirely 

 eliminated ; but it is the right thing to try for, and, 



