194 RAIL-SHOOTING. 
net is a great convenience ; but to mark well, a man 
must be endowed by nature with that peculiar gift. 
Among the vast mass of undistinguishable marine 
plants that spring from the muddy bottom and rise a 
few inches or many feet above the surface, it would 
seem impossible to determine, within an approach to 
accuracy, where some bird, visible only for amoment 
and cut down when just topping the reeds, has 
fallen ; and when another bird rises to meet the same 
fate, and perhaps a dozen are down before the first 
is retrieved, successful marking becomes a miracle. 
With some punters on the Delaware, where their 
names are famous, so wonderful is the precision that 
every bird, if killed outright, will be recovered, and 
even a poor marksman will make a respectable return; 
but when the gentleman shoots badly and the man 
marks worse, rail-shooting is unprofitable. 
For this sport, thus followed, it will be seen that 
a punter is indispensable, and it is made the business 
of a large class of men along the salt marshes where 
the rail most do congregate; and wherever a punter 
cannot be obtained, as in the wilder portions of our 
country, rail-shooting cannot be had. 
From the necessity for rapid firing, the immense 
advantage of a breech-loader must be apparent; the 
tide rarely serves for over two or three hours, and 
to kill more than a hundred birds in that time with 
a muzzle-loader is a remarkable feat, as it requires 
almost the entire time for the mere loading and firing 
of the gun; but the breech-loader may be charged 
in an instant, and enables the sportsman to improve 
