FLIGHT SHOOTING. 279 



from collections of old iron and fastened to stocks of the most homely 

 construction, carbines, and blunderbusses, that it is positively dan- 

 g'erous to be among them. They assemble early in the afternoon, 

 and place themselves in what they consider commanding- positions ; 

 when, if a flight of fowl chances to come in that direction, every one 

 who happens to be within five hundred yards' range, lets fly his 

 charge at them : if a bird happens to fall, every one of the party 

 scrambles after and lays claim to it, no matter how far off" he stood, 

 or whether he fired first or last : thus a flight-shooting fi'olic is fre- 

 quently followed by a wrangle ; then a row ; and, finally, a fight. 



I have been present at one or two such scenes, repetitions of which 

 I have no inclination to witness, although one in particular was most 

 laughable. A number of men had assembled on some well-known 

 marshes, early one afternoon, during a very sharp winter. They 

 placed themselves at distances of about fifty yards apart from each 

 other, behind embankments of snow and ice thrown up for the pur- 

 pose of screens. Presently three wild-swans were observed ap- 

 proaching through the air in a direct line with some of the hidden 

 gunners, and the flight of the swans was low enough to bring them 

 within fair gun-shot. As may be supposed every gun on the marsh 

 was discharged at them, regardless of distance. Either the last 

 charge, or last but one, from the guns winged one of the swans ; when 

 each man who had fired his gun claimed it ; and, after an hour's 

 incessant wrangling*, a fight ensued, which ended in a desperate 

 scramble for the swan, which was torn limb from limb. One carried 

 home the head, another part of the neck, others wings or legs ; but 

 the strongest man present was the village blacksmith, who secured 

 the lion's share — the carcass : and he, of all others, had least claim 

 to it, being too far distant when he shot to have so much as ruffled 

 the bird's feathers 5 the result was, therefore,' alike unsatisfactory 

 to all parties concerned save the one strong blacksmith. 



It is always best to avoid going among a number of guns, or with 

 a party, on a flight-shooting excursion : the man who goes by him- 

 self bi-ings home most birds. A retriever and a short double-barrelled 

 gun are the only requisite equi[)ments : but there is a great deo-ree 

 of uncertainty attending the sport in any but sharp winters, besides 

 the disagreeable necessity of standing shivering in the cold for one 

 full hour or more behind an ice-berg on a bitter cold night. 



