BLACK-GAME SHOOTING 
In many other ways a black-game day has charms denied to any other 
form of regular shooting. But few are fortunate enough to have the shooting 
over such favoured ground as will admit of a day being expressly set aside 
for the purpose, and they issue their invitations to this shoot with care 
beyond the ordinary. You may be asked to shoot people’s pheasants, 
partridges or grouse for a hundred different reasons ; perhaps you are a 
social acquisition to any party, valuable to keep things going in the 
drawing-room after dinner; or a good shot and good company so long 
as everything is to your liking ; or a friend of the family or local big wig ; 
or you may be the owner of wide acres of your own, prolific in game, and 
only asked on the principle of “ scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.” 
Any of these qualifications will probably ensure you plenty of shooting 
in the course of the season, but none of them are likely to gain you ad- 
mittance to the small, select circle from which the guns for the black-game 
day are chosen. Each gun — ^if the day is to be a success — must be a good 
shot and something more. He must know enough to realize that this is no 
“cut and dried ” form of shooting, and to appreciate a ” hot corner ” at its 
true value when all goes well, yet equally prepared to accept the times 
which will come when things don’t quite come off, and he hardly gets a 
shot, as all in the day’s work. Then he must be on the alert the whole 
time, with a grasp of the situation which shall enable him to decide at 
an instant’s notice when he should let the leaders of a big strung-out 
pack pass unscathed, though offering the most tempting shots, lest the 
drive be spoilt for the other guns. He must be able to choose his own 
stand for a drive, and crawl into his place without unduly exposing him- 
self to view, and should further be ready to walk the roughest hillside with 
the beaters, and snatch a lightning chance at some old Blackcock sailing 
back high over the birches. 
If but one gun of the party fail in any of these particulars, you may feel 
sure that he will cheat the bag of its due many a time before the end of the 
day, if indeed he does not succeed in spoiling what would probably have 
been the most killing drive, for it is surprising what a malign delight 
the fates that preside over our sport seem to take in exposing the weak 
point in a line. And so those of us who take pride in knowing a little about 
shooting in general, quite apart from any question of marksmanship, 
are as pleased when the welcome letter arrives bidding us make one of 
the small party to drive the Blackcocks, as though there had been con- 
ferred on us a regular diploma for woodcraft. 
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