PUNT-SHOOTING AS A SPORT 131 



when they do get the chance, shoot their shore-birds in 

 splendid style. These men usually know better, and, although 

 they would have one believe they know nothing further of 

 wildfowling than they profess as shore-gunners, they generally 

 have enough sense not to say anything about matters they 

 have not actually experienced. The class we need recall are, 

 again, those who think they are shore-shooters ; yet, worse 

 luck, they invariably fail to prove what they contend. We 

 make no inclusion here of professional wildfowlers. Sport 

 in its true sense is a non-return game. Thus we cannot hold 

 the poor professional shooter of the coast to be always a 

 sportsman — at least, in our way of thinking. His plan is to 

 get fowl, whether by fair means or foul, for he seeks the birds 

 for remuneration, and not for pleasure. And who can blame 

 him in his cause? He depends on the birds for his livelihood. 

 They are his wages, his very meat and drink. Nevertheless, 

 many of these poor chaps are excellent sportsmen. We should 

 all remember that in true sport duke and peasant are but one. 

 Shore-shooting is a fine art, but real wildfowling at its best 

 can hardly be experienced along-shore, not because the sport 

 of shore-gunning does not possess as much charm as punting, 

 but mainly because the wildest of wildfowl are not usually shot 

 in numbers on the verge of the mainland proper. The chief 

 haunts of large numbers of brent geese, widgeon, and other 

 wary fowl are the wide, open stretches of shore and estuary 

 which lie at various places around our coast. To shoot them 

 in such places one must be afloat. The largest shoulder guns 

 can do but little service amongst them. Even the odds against 

 a punt and large gun are more often in favour of the birds than 

 otherwise. Far out yonder, on that long bar of ooze, sit the 

 brent — a thousand strong. How are we to shoot them ? Not 

 a handful of sea-ware can move within a mile radius without 

 detection by the eyes of these unapproachable birds. The 

 punter has them there to deal with, for the shore-gunner has no 



