back-sight on an ivory pyramid with two or three leaves up to 300 yds., and the enamelled-bead fore-sight, are the most usual form. The more elaborate Lyman and Beech peep-sights are also popular. One or two varieties of telescope sight, attachable to the barrel, are also made by some leading gun makers, and have been used with success in the field. Solid-drawn brass cartridge-cases are now always used for sporting rifles, except occasionally for some of the larger bores, in which paper cartridges may be used. The peculiarity of the express bullet is its hollow point, which is intended to ensure the expansion of the projectile on impact. This diminishes its penetration, but translates its velocity or energy into “shock.” If greater penetration is needed, the leaden bullet is hardened with mercury or tin, or the military nickel-coated bullet is used. Explosive bullets filled with detonating powder were at one time used in express and large-bore rifles for large game. These are now practically abandoned, owing to their uncertainty of action and the danger in handling them. The use of the large 4- and 8-bore black-powder rifles is restricted to the hunting of large and dangerous game. These are usually double-barrelled. The 4-bore weighs from 14 to 18 ℔ with 20-in. barrels, and fires a charge of 12 to 14 drs. of powder, with a spherical bullet of 1510 grs. The great weight of this rifle is against its general use. The 8-bore rifle weighs from 1112 to 15 ℔ with 20- to 24-in. barrels, with a charge of 8 to 12 drs. of powder with a spherical ball. These rifles are accurate and effective up to 120 yds. Rook and rabbit rifles are usually single-barrel breech-loading rifles of from ·220 to ·380 bore, hammerless, ejectors. The range is ordinarily restricted to 200 yds.
Combined rifles and shot-guns are generally used in countries where the kind of game to be met with is not known beforehand, and by emigrants who can only afford one gun. These weapons are double-barrelled (·450, rifle barrel and 16-bore short barrel; or ·500 rifle and 12-bore shot). Such a gun has many drawbacks, being too heavy for a shot-gun and too light for a rifle, with a bad balance. More modern combinations of the rifle and shot-gun are Holland’s “Paradox,” a smooth bore with the last three inches of the barrel ratchet-rifled, Lancaster's “Colindian” twisted oval bore, and Bland’s “Euoplia” with “invisible” undulating rifling. All these weapons fire heavy bullets more or less accurately up to 100 yds., are also used as shot-guns, and are made double- single-barrelled and of various calibres, 12-bore being the most common. There is also Greener’s “under, and over,” the rifle barrel being topmost (usually 16-bore shot-gun barrel and ·450 rifle barrel). The Morris tube also enables a shot-gun to be utilized as a small-bore rifle or a large rifle as a saloon rifle for gallery practice. The automatic principle has not yet been applied to sporting rifles.
Miniature Rifles.—In 1905 a War Office miniature or cadet rifle for instruction purposes was officially adopted by the British military authorities. The details of this rifle were determined by a committee, upon which the National Rifle Association and the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs were represented. It is a single-loading bolt-action ride of ·22 calibre with military sights (the aperture sight being barred), shooting a rim-fire cartridge having a 40 gr. bullet propelled by 5 grs. of black gunpowder or its equivalent in some smokeless explosive. It is used at ranges from 25 yds. up to a maximum of 200 yds. The official adoption of such a rifle was largely due to the civilian rifle club movement, which was the outcome of the South African War, and in which the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs has played an important part. Until the recent official adoption of the miniature rifle, the council of the N.R.A. regarded marksmanship with the service rifle as its main object of encouragement, and the service rifle itself as the orthodox weapon. The Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs, on the other hand, makes the encouragement of the use of low-power rifles its special object, with few restrictions as to type of sights, rifle or ammunition. Numerous civilian rifle clubs have adopted the ·22 calibre rifle, in many cases with aperture sights, with marked success, and British rifle-makers were encouraged to cater for this new demand for low-power rifles, Such weapons can be far more widely and generally used than the ordinary service weapon, owing to their smaller cost, cheaper ammunition, absence of recoil, and their convenience for use at short covered ranges in crowded centres of population. In many parts of Great Britain there is practically no alternative between low-power short-range practice and no shooting at all. The N.R.A. has now admitted the miniature ·22 calibre ride upon equal terms with the service rifle. The miniature rifle has, to some extent, taken the place of the Morris tube and “adaptors” previously used for rifle practice at short ranges.[1] The Morris tube consists of a small-rifled barrel, usually chambered for the 297/230-bore cartridge, and capable of being fitted inside the barrel of the ordinary service weapon, which thus becomes available as a miniature rifle for short-range practice. The Morris tube has been adopted by the British War Office, and affords an excellent means of training the recruit. “Adaptors” are dummy cartridge-cases fitted into the breech of the ordinary rifle, by means of which a shorter cartridge firing a lighter charge of powder, but with a bullet of the same calibre as the rifle, can be used for short-range practice. One of the first English miniature target rifles was the “Sharpshooters' Club” rifle, on the Martini principle, of ·310 calibre, manufactured and introduced by W. W. Greener, and suitable for ranges from 50 to 300 yds. This rifle was adopted by many rifle clubs, and in 1901 established a record in the miniature rifle competition at Bisley. Miniature rifle shooting has been much encouraged throughout the United Kingdom by the establishment of the Light Rifle Championship competition under the auspices of the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs. In 1907 Queen Alexandra presented a cup for this event. (H. S-K.)
RIFLEMAN-BIRD, or Rifle-bird, names given by the English in Australia to a very beautiful inhabitant of that country,[2] probably because in coloration it resembled the well-known uniform of the rifle-regiments of the British army, while in its long and projecting hypochondriac plumes and short tail a further likeness might be traced to the hanging pelisse and the jacket formerly worn by the members of those corps. The cock bird is clothed in velvety-black generally glossed with rich purple, but having each feather of the abdomen broadly tipped with a chevron of green bronze, while the crown of the head is covered with scale-like feathers of glittering green, and on the throat gleams a triangular patch of brilliant bluish emerald, a colour that reappears on the whole upper surface of the middle pair of tail-quills. The hen is greyish-brown above, the crown striated with dull white; the chin, throat and a streak behind the eye are pale ochreous, and the lower parts deep buff, each feather bearing a black chevron. According to James Wilson (Ill. Zoology, pl. xi.), specimens of both sexes were obtained by Sir T. Brisbane at Port Macquarie, whence, in August 1823, they were sent to the Edinburgh Museum, where they arrived the following year; but the species was first described by W. Swainson in January 1825 (Zool. Journal, i. 481) as the type of a new genus Ptiloris, more properly written Ptilorrhis,[3] and it is generally known in ornithology as P. paradisea. It inhabits the northern part of New South Wales and southern part of Queensland as far as Wide Bay, beyond which its place is taken by a kindred species, the P. victoriae of J. Gould, which was found by John Macgillivray on the shores and islets of Rockingham Bay. Farther to the north, in York Peninsula, occurs what is considered a third species, P. alberti,
- ↑ In the military forces short-range practice now takes two forms—practice with Morris tube or miniature rifle, and practice with the full-sized rifle and ammunition on specially protected 30-yd. ranges.
- ↑ Curiously enough, its English name seems to be first mentioned in ornithological literature by Frenchmen—R. P. Lesson and Garnot—in 1828, who say (Voy. “Coquille,” Zoologie, p. 669) that it was applied “pour rappeler que ce fut un soldat de la garnison [of New South Wales] qui le tua le premier”—which seems to be an insufficient reason, though the statement as to how the first specimen was obtained maybe true.
- ↑ Some writers have amended Swainson’s faulty name in the form Ptilornis, but that is a mistake.
