196 RAIL-SHOOTING. 
balances himself, and wields his long pole dexter- 
ously on a small platform at the stern. 
Silently a bird, rising close to the boat, wings its 
way, with pendent legs and feeble strokes, towards 
some one of its numerous hiding-places ; instantly 
the punter plants his pole firmly in the bottom, hold- 
ing the skiff stationary, the sportsman brings up his 
piece, and, with deliberate aim, sends the charge 
straight after the doomed rail, which pitches head- 
long out of sight. The punter has marked him by 
that single wild rice-stalk with the broken top, and 
heads the boat at once towards the place; but ere 
he has advanced a dozen feet, another bird starts and 
offers to the expectant sportsman, who has his gun 
still “at a ready,” another favorable chance, and, 
meeting the same fate, falls into that low bunch of 
matted wild oats. The breech-loader opens, the 
charges are extracted and others inserted, just in 
time to make sure of two rail that rise simul- 
taneously, still ere the first has been reached, and 
which are both tumbled over and marked down— 
one, however, wing-tipped, and never to be seen by 
mortal eye again. 
Thus have I experienced it on the Delaware, at 
Hackensack, and, in former days, among the tribu- 
taries of Jamaica Bay, and at many other places where 
more or less success has attended me. Although 
never having enjoyed great luck, never having 
advanced beyond the first hundred, and claiming to 
be no such marksman as several of my friends, I 
have had wondrous sport. Of a good day, when the 
