160 FIELD SHOOTING. 



among them from a distance, professed himself a 

 great pigeon-shot. Powell listened to the wonders 

 this man could perform, and then enquired whether 

 they would like to back him to shoot pigeons against 

 one of the field-shooters of our party. They said 

 they would, and the preliminaries of a match 

 were arranged, in which Powell was to put up 

 our team of ponies and wagon against a hundred 

 dollars cash on the other side. But the match 

 was not confirmed ; for while the discussion was 

 still going on Phillips and I returned to camp 

 from our hunt, and this broke it off. One of the 

 Assumption men had seen me before somewhere, 

 and had heard my shooting well spoken of. He 

 caused his townsmen to draw back. I have no 

 idea that the man they spoke of was much of a 

 shot. He very likely could not kill sixty birds 

 in a hundred at eighteen yards rise. 



During the time we shot in Christian County 

 Phillips and 1 kept separate accounts of the game 

 we killed. In the three months I killed with my 

 own gun over six thousand head of game-birds. 

 They included pinnated grouse, brant, geese, ducks, 

 cranes, golden plover and curlew, snipe, and a few 

 sand-snipe. The largest number were golden plo- 

 ver and curlew, and the next on the list was snipe. 



