Always select young game, if possible, as it is more likely to be tender than that which has been condemned to the wall at numberless parties.  Game with freckles, or pimples, or cross eyes, can never be first-class.

CHAPTER II.

AMMUNITION.

Too much care cannot be exercised in the selection of this article.  You must take care that it is adapted to the game.  If the bird be an unbleached blonde, try first-class prayer-meetings, mild decoctions of Sunday-school exhibitions, parlor concerts, and readings.  If it wear spectacles, some light, airy, and poetical reading matter, like BUTLER’S Analogy, or the Tribune, is useful.  If the bird be a brunette, try theatres, balls, operas, etc.; suppers at DEL.’S have been known to do execution among this class.  Never try lectures to young women with this kind of bird.  The bleached blondes are difficult to handle.  If you suspect the bleaching, try a judicious mixture of both kinds of ammunition.

Some kinds of ammunition are adapted to all classes.  Rings, especially diamonds, fans, bouquets, and jewels can be used in quantities only limited by the amount of your bank account, or of your employer’s petty cash.  I have seen a bracelet do the business at once, though, to be sure, it was a very gorgeous one.  Serenades may be used to advantage, but care must be taken in selecting the songs and the windows.  To a blonde you may very well sing, “Thy eyes so blue, of violet hue;” to a brunette, “Black-eyed Mary” or Susan; to a bleached blonde, “I am dying, Egypt, dying.”  Never sing vulgar songs, which are used by hungry lovers of cooks, such as, “Wilt thou meat me to-night by the old garden gate,” or, “Meat me by moonlight alone.”

CHAPTER III.

BRINGING DOWN THE GAME.

Nowhere is more real skill required than here; If you do not make a dead shot, you might better have saved your ammunition.  Almost every wounded bird escapes.  Always make sure of your aim, and, when you fire, bring down the bird.  The proper course to pursue is this:  carefully use your ammunition, and, when you think things are favorable, and you get a good sight, make your shot.  You can always deliver it best on your knees.  Be careful that there is no little sister or brother around when you go in for business, for snickering is catching, and the bird may fly before you have delivered your shot.

Some shady nook is the proper place in which to do this part of the business, unless the weather be cold; in that case I have known game to be brought down by a sportsman in the hall, where the house was heated by hot air.  Parent birds sometimes interrupt the sportsman just as he imagines that he has a sure thing, which certainly is very aggravating.  Game properly brought down drops upon your left shoulder, and you judiciously apply your lips to its bill.  After that a proper amount of hugging is advantageous and nice, but be very careful not to keep the parent birds up too late.