IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 
51 
it (though there would be nearly double this number with a 
correct aim), these five or six might have plenty of velocity 
to cause a fatal wound, without striking the head or neck ; 
whilst in the case of a very high bird, as shown, only one or 
two ' lucky * pellets would be likely to have force to kill, and 
then only if they chanced to penetrate a vital part. 
On the Shock given to a Bird when Struck by the Charge, 
In connection with Series V. the question of the ' shock ' 
given to a bird when a number of pellets strike it in the body 
may be considered. If mere shock would kill a really high 
pheasant, then I should have had some specimens sent to me 
that were killed by being hit in the body only, without showing 
any pellets in vital places. But, as it was, each bird I received 
had a pellet or two in some vital part, and these pellets were 
responsible for its death. Ordinary overhead pheasants, at 
from 25 to 28 yds. high, that are struck in the body by, 
perhaps, six or seven pellets, large or small, with none in the 
head, heart, or neck, would usually fall dead at once from the 
shock, for at this distance they would penetrate deeply, and 
the bird, though no pellet reached a vital part of it, would 
be knocked over just as if it were a wounded one on the 
ground that was killed by a blow from a stick. 
I have, however, examined winged pheasants caught by 
a retriever two or three days after a cover-shoot, at which 
no birds were above an ordinary height, and found four or five 
pellets in their bodies, sometimes even several of No. 4, and 
yet these birds, when captured, were actually feeding with the 
uninjured ones in the woods ! 
It is an erroneous and rather fanciful idea that if a few 
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