6 
HIGH PHEASANTS : 
well-pelleted selected 30-in. circles were obtained on it which 
did not overlap. This saved much time and material. 
Every target front before being shot at had a round patch of 
thin black gauze, the size of a dinner plate, pinned to it as a 
bull's-eye to shoot at, and temporary sights, breech and muzzle 
(previously tested for accuracy at a horizontal mark), were 
fixed to the guns so that the patch could be aimed at as with 
a rifle. 
I soon found that, even when the wind was not sufficient 
to influence the bulk of the shot more than a few inches, I could 
not at 40 yds. centralise the pellets on the target if I placed 
the bull's-eye in its centre ; for in such case, though I aimed 
directly at it, the bulk of the pellets were always a little 
beyond the patch. If the patch had been a stationary 
pheasant with its head towards me, I should, five times out of 
six, have placed the central pellets of the shot-charge in its tail, 
though in horizontal shooting no divergence of the kind was 
apparent. I corrected this by placing the patch at what to me, 
as I was standing, was about a foot forward of the centre of the 
target, in the direction a pheasant would be flying towards, if 
coming from the kite. This suggests that, besides the actual 
shooting allowance, from the shooter's point of view, that is 
necessary to kill a high pheasant, a slight additional forward 
allowance is required. 
As I invariably stood and shot facing the kite, the target 
being directly above me, and as the wind, of course, blew 
from me or over the target towards the kite, I at first 
thought it was the wind alone which caused the shot-charge 
to strike beyond the bull's-eye — i.e., on that side of it nearest 
the kite. 
