PUNT-SHOOTING AS A SPORT 133 
being able to use the weapon for sporting purposes. The skill 
lies in being able to take shots at the right moment, and timing 
the charge of shot just so that it will reach or hit a moving 
object at a certain point. No doubt this feature is difficult to 
explain, but we feel safe in assuring our readers that it is still 
more difficult to perform. Heed not the words of those who 
would, but cannot, tell you, and judge for yourself. In fact, 
with regard to wildfowling, if you be determined to know the 
truth, cast doubt on everything until you know by personal 
experiment whether your information is right or not. 
We can, I think, safely advance the statement that in no 
other sport entailing the use of guns, are there the same de- 
mands wrought upon the shooter as in punting. He is his own 
pilot, sailor, naturalist, and gunner. We would rather, indeed, 
leave reference or comparison to other forms of shooting out 
of the question, but we feel it necessary to insist upon them as 
a means of making our meaning as plain as may be. 
In shooting driven game, the gunner has the birds to hand, 
without one necessary thought of whence they came or whither 
they go. All he has to do is to shoot them, which may be 
pretty practice, and may offer excellent opportunities for dis- 
playing skill with the shot-gun; but after this is said, all is 
over. With the wildfowler afloat all is very different. He has 
no personal assistants to fetch him birds to hand, yet, thank 
heaven, he has other assistants who can do it—the seasons, 
the weather, the winds, and the tides, each one in itself a 
study. The clever wildfowler can tell when the fowl will be 
on his ground. And how? Why, by his knowledge gained 
through long practice. The game-shot can go and count his 
birds, and be certain on the morning of the shoot. His sport 
is but for each day. The fowler’s is of seasonable arrange- 
ment, for he must be able to foretell projects some considerable 
time beforehand. We do not make any further remarks on 
any other form of shooting ; we have made sufficient for our 
