to the shoulder, the shot is fired and your bird dead. Practice has done all your arm, your eye, your finger, have obeyed, you not how or why. A mechanical movement has operated. This object you have achieved the moment you conceived it. When you desire to write a note, you write it; this appears simple enough. Nevertheless, how many thoughts are required to write this word! In the first place, thought must conceive it; the letters which compose it are presented to you in their natural order; you have written one after another, with their accents, their turns, their points, their apostrophes-all this is done without calculation-mechanically, and the word is

written.

:

There are those, to practise themselves in partridge-shooting, who shoot owls in the day-time it is a useless murder-murder, because the owl only does good in eating the millions of insects which devour us; useless, because you may shoot fifty owls following and miss all the partridges you find. That which constitutes a good sports

E

man is quickness of action: this promptitude, this certain glance of the eye, which causes him to seize the occasion in a hair'sbreadth-the occasion once lost which may never again be found. The Romans represent it running on the edge of a razor and flying as a bird.

"Cursu volucri, pendens in novacula."

They had reason: the partridge, the quail, all species of game, resemble it. You must take advantage of the moment, once gone, never to return. In like manner can shooting owls be like that of game? They go, they come, they come again—a hundred times—a thousand: you take your time, you aim, you fire only when they are at the end of your gun. You select the moment, and this moment lost, returns in a minute. You may have better practice by throwing up sparrows from your hand and firing at them in the air.

As with partridges, you must select your time—and it will cause you no inconvenience to destroy a few of these really quarrel

some birds-but as regards the owl it is positively a crime to kill them.

Nevertheless, a sportsman may hit many a sparrow and miss a partridge, though they show a better front. The noise which the latter make when rising astonishes and unnerves, and some time is required to accustom yourself to it; and we know that a young actor who plays well at rehearsals loses his head or forgets himself before a paying pit.

THE WIND AND THE WALK.

"Pour être bon chasseur, il ne s'agit pas seulement de savoir bien tirer, il faut encore savoir bien chasser."

The

BEGIN by taking the wind; that is to say, should it blow from the north, walk toward the north; if from the south, to the south: you will soon find the disadvantages of not following this method. Two great annoyances will be caused therefrom: the game will hear the noise of your footsteps, and your dog will hunt without scent. contrary will be the case if you feel a slight breeze in your face. This conveys to the nose of your dog the peculiar scents which emanate from the hare or the partridge. Like the miner who follows in the earth a vein of ore, the dog follows this line of invisible atoms, and traces out your path.

It is not the distance you walk, but the manner in which you seek your game which

secures sport. Explore all your ground: leave none untried.

You have beaten with a good wind a field of lucerne : should another join, do not commence it without taking the wind rather return to that you have tried, in order to commence the new one with the wind in your favour. These marches and countermarches are always necessary, and often very useful the hare, which has not moved the first time, starts on the second, and your trouble is repaid. When the field is large and long, take it at your ease, lengthways, returning always over the ground you have beaten, as it is useless to walk over your fields save you have the wind.

You may also cross and recross the field: in such cases you have always a side-wind. Where you have plenty of shooting ground, adopt this plan; if on the contrary, do not follow it.

In the latter case, you must economise, and not waste. Stop from time to time; be all eyes and ears. A sportsman who is always on the move may walk ten times