HOW TO KILL THEM 171 



the manner indicated above — not as a thing to be 

 aimed at, but intercepted ; frequerntly, from shooting 

 too soon or too late instead of at the killing angle ; 

 frequently, nay, always with the man whose habitual 

 form is good, from some disorder of the digestion, 

 the liver, or the nerves. To shoot well — it cannot be 

 too often repeated — a man should be as fit as though 

 he had to fight for his life. In consideration for his 

 host, in mercy to the birds, and in hope of satisfaction 

 to himself, let him bear in mind to eat lightly, sleep 

 well, and exceed in nothing. To shoot badly, besides 

 being an unsightly and disappointing performance, is 

 a very cruel thing to the birds, and in the case of 

 pheasants, since you are under no obligation to score 

 heavily, and can always pick your shots, is really un- 

 necessary to anyone in good health, and who does not 

 suffer from defective vision. 



As a proof of this, there are numbers of men 

 who have taken to the gun late in life, and who, 

 though they make a poor hand at driven partridges or 

 grouse, at a wild snipe or a still wilder wood-pigeon, 

 will yet perform very well at ordinary pheasants. They 

 have grasped the system, they take things coolly, are 

 not jealous or over-keen, they select carefully the shots 

 they feel they can kill, ignoring those they cannot, 

 and it is only a practised eye that would detect — 



