IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 
33 
ground, though it looks as if a pheasant flying past this part 
of the building would be out of range. 
It is rather the fashion among some game-shots to shoot 
at a high pheasant as directly above them as they can, even 
bending backwards as they do so. They have not, however, 
any chance of a second barrel at a really high bird, if it is 
missed when so straight overhead as the position referred 
to implies. 
It is often argued that if a shooter leans backwards and 
fires at an overhead pheasant after it has slightly passed him, 
he is more likely to score a kill by reason of the shot-pellets 
entering the body of the bird, under the ends of its breast and 
neck feathers. 
This is a curious supposition, as in the case of a bird flying 
directly over his head, the shooter — if his spine did not break 
— would require to bend backwards till his gun pointed at an 
angle behind him of about 45°, before the shot would enter 
under the feathers, which overlap on the body of the bird like 
slates on the roof of a house. The farther an approaching 
overhead pheasant is allowed to pass behind the shooter, the 
less vulnerable does it become, and the more are its vital 
parts protected, including head, neck, and heart ; whilst 
the parts it might be only wounded in are chiefly exposed 
to the gun. 
The best angle, and at all events it is one theoretically 
correct, at which to place the shot-charge so as to kill an 
advancing high bird, is to meet, i.e., in some measure intercept 
it with the shot, and hence to fire at it a few yards farther in 
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