70 
HIGH PHEASANTS : 
In the sketches, Figs. 5, 6, 7, the apparent size of the 
birds is given as seen by the shooter when they are measured 
at the muzzle of his gun, the gun being at the shoulder and 
directed towards them. 
The measurements were taken from dead birds slung from 
the kite-line, their wings, heads, and tails being extended by 
wires. Small callipers were attached to the muzzle of a gun, 
and were so arranged that they could be set to the 
dimensions of the birds without taking the gun from the 
shoulder. 
By this method the perpendicular and horizontal measure- 
ments of the birds were obtained with the callipers fixed at 
exactly the same distance from the eye of the shooter. 
An overhead object appears, if measured, much smaller 
than one at the same distance away on the ground. Even 
if we view from a distance, so as not to foreshorten his 
figure, a man working on the top of a high building, he 
looks a dwarf in comparison to what he would do if standing 
the same space from us on the pavement. A small and round 
balloon gives precisely the same effect. 
It is surprising how small, to what is imagined, the 
apparent size of an object is if measured as the eye 
sees it. 
A high pheasant may suggest a mark to aim at that is 
a couple of feet in length, though it could scarce be 
may vary, yet I have found very slight difference between the apparent size at which 
one long-sighted person sees an object and that at which another sees it, if they 
measure its dimensions with callipers, in each case, of course, at the same distance 
from the eye. I have heard it disputed that a bird high overhead can, through an 
optical illusion, appear smaller to the eye than one seen horizontally, and near the 
ground. Though theory has been adduced to prove this to be an incorrect conclusion, 
yet the fact is beyond question, as anyone who, like myself, has made careful 
practical tests must realise. 
