POINT SHOOTING. 415 



seen, on the sloops of one or two professionals, a great 

 pile of these; for the swan will decoy readily, coming 

 either to swan decoys or to the call alone. I remember 

 once tying out at a point in a bay from which we put 

 out great flocks of swans and geese, and an hour or two 

 later a single swan was seen flying toward the bay. 

 My boatman called to it, while I tried to change the 

 duck cartridges which were in the gun for those loaded 

 with buckshot, which were lying ready for just such 

 an emergency. Alas for the chance! The day was 

 rainy, the chambers of my gun a little foul from smoke, 

 and the cartridges had swollen. It took me a long time 

 to get out the ones that were in and a long time to 

 insert the others in the chamber. While I was wretch- 

 edly working at this I was reduced to the last pitch of 

 nervousness by the boatman, who punctuated his calls 

 to the swan by remarks such as these: "Here he 

 comes!" "He's heading right for us!" "Be ready 

 now, he's almost near enough !" "Now he's right over 

 the decoys; get up and kill him!" "Oh, shoot, shoot!" 

 "There he goes!" "He's gone!" There was a pause, 

 during which I managed to shove first one and then 

 the other cartridge into the gun ; but before I had closed 

 it the boatman whispered excitedly : "Here he comes 

 back again, right over the decoys !" Closing the gun, I 

 stood up and killed the great bird just beyond my 

 furthest decoys, 



"Oh!" cried the boatman, as he ran to the skiff to 

 get the bird, "that's wuth a dollar — a dollar, sir." 



Sometimes swans do curious things. Once watching 



