THE RAIL. 227 



that he may be thrown down, perhaps overboard, — at all events, be 

 often prevented from shooting when a rail presents itself. 



Another important requisite in a "pusher" is that he be a good 

 "marker," otherwise one-third of all the birds shot will be lost, as 

 the eternal sameness of the green reeds precludes the possibility of 

 an inexperienced hand finding them, when, as is often the case, 

 there are four or five rails dovfn at one time. Who among our 

 Philadelphia shooters has not heard of Old Pike, Fowler, and Bill 

 Rump, of rail-shooting notoriety, all of whom have served an 

 honoi-able apprenticeship to the arduous task of "pushing," and 

 are not yet to be excelled in these parts? How eagerly are these 

 three veteran "pushers" sought after, and how frequently, almost 

 universally, do their boats bring in the largest number of birds, 

 without regard to the skill of the sportsman himself! — as an in- 

 different shot, with these men, Avill have double the number of 

 chances that a better marksman with another "pusher" will get on 

 the same tide, and consequently may miss a third of his birds and 

 still be even with the party. The first time we went out rail- 

 shooting, we employed "Bill Rump;" and, to our great satisfaction 

 and surprise, on counting our birds, found that we had beaten 

 several old stagers at the sport, although — we are loath to con- 

 fess it — we missed enough of fair shots to quite discourage, if not 

 at times to totally disgust, our zealous "pusher." 



However, speaking of "beating others at this kind of sport" 

 reminds us of the great opportunities that those who participate 

 in this amusement have of chiselling each other regarding the 

 number of rails actually killed on one tide. To show the fallacy 

 of betting on the results of such shooting, without the parties are 

 much closer watched than they usually are at the present time, we 

 will merely state that there are some individuals, "begging their 

 pardons," nothing remarkable for their shooting qualities, who 

 never can be beaten, or never will be beaten, upon a trial-match at 

 rail-shooting, no matter how great the number their antagonist kills, 

 for the simple reason that they are leagued in with their friends 

 and "pushers" to provide them with the birds when concealed from 



