UPLAND SHOOTING. 
237 
with good eyesight, and steady nerves, may attain to respecta¬ 
bility, if nort excellence, in this gentlemanlike and manly art. 
To this end, practice and coolness are the great desiderata. 
Rules, I think, avail little, if anything. I have seen men shoot 
excellently, who closed one eye to take aim—excellently who 
shot with both open,—never, however, I must admit, decently, 
who shut both—not, by the way, a very uncommon occurrence 
with beginners. I have seen men again shoot excellently, car¬ 
rying their guns at full cock,—excellently, who never cocked 
either barrel till in the act of firing. 
There is, however, one thing to be observed,—no man can 
shoot well in covert, or at snap shots, who follows his bird with 
his gun, or dwells on his aim—the first sight is always the best; 
and it is deliberate promptitude in catching this first sight which 
alone constitutes—what my poor friend, J. Cypress, Junior, 
used to call the rarest work of nature—a truly cool, truly quick, 
orach shot. 
With regard to hunting dogs on Quail, there is a great deal 
to be said; and in nothing is the true and thoroughbred sports¬ 
man more distinctly marked from the cockney pot-hunter, than 
by his skill, temper, and success, in managing his four-footed 
companions. 
Quail shooting, as the most difficult of all shooting, and re¬ 
quiring the greatest natural qualifications, and most perfect 
training in the dog, demands also the greatest science in the 
person who hunts the dog. 
The great desiderata here are, first, to know precisely what 
a dog ought to do,—and, second, to make him do it. 
In this country, far more sportsmen fail in the first—in Eng¬ 
land more in the second particular. 
It were scarce too much to say, that four sportsmen, in their 
own opinion, here , out of five, know so little what are the re¬ 
quisite performances and capabilities of a dog, that within 
twelve months after buying a perfectly well-broke dog, they 
permit him to lose all he has ever known, merely from failing tc 
exercise his abilities, and punish his eccentricities. 
