FIELD ORNITHOLOGY part i 



absolute weight or measures of either po-R;der or shot can be given ; 

 in fact, different guns take as their most effective charge such a 

 variable amount of ammunition, that one of the first things you 

 have to learn about your own arm is, its normal charge -gauge. 

 Find out, by assiduous target practice, what absolute amounts (and 

 to a slight degree, what relative proportion) of powder and shot are 

 required to shoot the farthest and distribute the pellets most evenly. 

 This practice, furthermore, will acquaint you with your gun's capa- 

 cities in every respect. You should learn exactly what it will and 

 what it will not do, so as to feel perfect confidence in your arm 

 within a certain range, and to waste no shots in attempting miracles. 

 Immoderate recoil is a pretty sure sign that the gun is overloaded, 

 or otherwise wrongly charged ; and all force of recoil is subtracted 

 from the impulse of the shot. It is useless to ram powder very 

 hard ; two or three smart taps of the rod will sufiice, and more will 

 not increase the explosive force. On the shot the wad should 

 simply be pressed close enough to fix the pellets immovably. 

 These directions apply to the charging of metal or paper cartridges 

 as well as to loading by the muzzle. The latter operation is rarely 

 required, now that guns of every grade are made to break at the 

 breech. Finally, let me impress upon you the expediency of light 

 loading in your routine collecting. Three-fourths of your shots 

 need not bring into action the gun's full powers of execution. 

 You will shoot more birds under than over ^thirty yards ; not a 

 few you must secure, if at all, at ten or fifteen yards ; and your 

 object is always to kill them with the least possible damage to the 

 plumage. I have, on particular occasions, loaded even down to 

 one third oz. of shot and one and a half dr. of powder. There is 

 astonishing force compressed in a few grains of powder ; an aston- 

 ishing number of pellets in the smallest load of mustard-seed. 



To Shoot successfully is an art which may be acquired by 

 practice, and can be learned only in the school of experience. No 

 general directions will make you a good shot, any more than a 

 proficient in music or painting. To tell you that in order to hit a 

 bird you must point the gun at it and press the trigger, is like 

 saying that to play on the fiddle you must shove the bow across 

 the strings with one hand while you finger them with the other ; 

 in either case the result is the same, a noise, but neither music nor 

 game. Nor is it possible for every one to become an artist in 

 gunnery ; a " crack-shot," like a poet, is born, not made. For 

 myself, I make no pretensions to genius in that direction ; for 

 although I generally make fair bags, and have destroyed many 

 thousand birds in my time, this is rather owing to some familiarity 

 I have gained with the habits of birds, and a certain knack, acquired 

 by long practice, of picking them out of trees and bushes, than to 



