FIELD ORNITHOLOGY 



as many. As items serving to base calculations, I may mention 

 that in four months I used about two thousand cartridges, loaded, 

 at $42 per M., with seven-eighths of an ounce of shot and two and 

 three -fourths drachms of powder. Only about three hundred 

 were charged with shot larger than mustard-seed. In estimating 

 the size of a collection that may result from use of a given number 

 of cartridges, it may not be safe for even a good shot to count on 

 much more than half as many specimens as cartridges. The number 

 is practically reduced by the following steps : Cartridges lost or 

 damaged, or originally defective ; shots missed ; bii"ds killed or 

 wounded, not recovered ; specimens secured unfit for presei'vation, 

 or not preserved for any reason ; specimens accidentally spoilt in 

 stuffing, or subsequently damaged, so as to be not worth keeping ; 

 and finally, use of cartridges to kill game for the table. 



Other Weapons, etc. — An ordinary single-harrel gun will of 

 course answer ; but is a sorry makeshift, for it is sometimes so 

 poorly constructed as to be unsafe, and can at best be only just 

 half as effective. This remark does not apply to any of the fine 

 single-barrelled breech-loaders now made. You will find these very 

 effective weapons, and they are not at all expensive. An arm noAv 

 much used by collectors is a kind of breech-loading pistol, Avith or 

 without a skeleton gun-stock to screw into the handle, and taking a 

 particular style of metal cartridge, charged with a few grains of 

 powder, or with nothing but the fulminate. They are very light, 

 very cheap, safe and easy to work, and astonishingly effective up to 

 twenty or thirty yards ; making probably the best "second choice " 

 after the matchless double-barrelled breech-loader itself. The cane- 

 gun should be mentioned in this connection. It is a single-barrel, 

 lacquered to look like a stick, with a brass stopper at the muzzle to 

 imitate a ferule, countersunk hammer and trigger, and either a 

 simple curved handle, or a light gunstock-shaped piece that screws 

 in. The affair is easily mistaken for a cane. Some have acquired 

 considerable dexterity in its use ; my own experience with it is very 

 limited and unsatisfactory ; the handle always hit me in the face, 

 and I generally missed my bird. It has only two recommendations. 

 If you approve of shooting on Sunday, and 3'^et scruple to shock 

 popular prejudice, you can slip out of town unsuspected. If you 

 are shooting where the law forbids destruction of small birds, — a 

 wise and good law that you may sometimes be inclined to defy, — 

 artfully careless handling of the deceitful implement may prevent 

 arrest and fine. A hlow-gtin is sometimes used. It is a long slender 

 tube of wood, metal, or glass, through Avhich clay balls, tiny arrows, 

 etc., are projected by force of the breath. It must be quite an art 

 to use such a weapon successfully, and its employment is necessarily 

 exceptional. Some uncivilised tribes are said to possess marvellous 



