IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 
71 
measured between the finger and thumb without their 
touching each other. 
No object can, however, be actually larger or smaller to our 
vision than we see it, though optical delusion and imagination 
may wrongly influence our idea of its size. This is certainly 
discursive, though in some degree relative to the killing 
of a high pheasant. 
The extremely small mark offered by the 40-yd. high 
pheasant, as seen by the eye of the shooter, in Fig. 7, 
makes the forward allowance we should wish to give it most 
difficult to determine with accuracy, and this has much to do 
with a possible failure to kill it. On the other hand a low, 
though equally distant, crossing bird (Fig 5), owing to its 
Fig. 5. — Pheasants flying horizontally at 40 yds., 20 ft. above ground, 
showing their apparent size as seen by the shooter. 
Fig. 6. — Pheasants flying overhead at 40 yds., showing their apparent 
size as seen by the shooter. 
much greater apparent size, as seen by the shooter, is far 
easier to judge the pace of, and at the same time give a 
correct forward allowance to. 
