132 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 



chance. By the puntsman's craftsmanship, perfect knowledge 

 of the habits of the birds, and their every-day movements, at 

 some opportune moment he may eventually steal a march and 

 come in touch with them, though at all times only by dogged 

 perseverance. With so many things against the fowler afloat, 

 who can envy him his triumph when he does succeed ? And 

 success under difficulties is the essence of gratification to a true 

 sportsman, and, without doubt, no other form of shooting can 

 afford this better than punting. Here, also, we might add, 

 the perseverance, courage, excitement, nerve strain, coolness 

 in action, and the true temperament of a man can never be 

 better tested than when pitted against the wary wildfowl of the 

 British Isles. 



Success in wildfowl shooting does not generally come all at 

 once. Much time and patient study must be gone through 

 along with that bitter, yet best of teachers, experience, before 

 we can hope for good results. No more could a man shoot 

 the moon than set out in a punt and assail a company of wary 

 mallards on an open shore, if he had never before attempted 

 such a task. And this is to say nothing about the actual shoot- 

 ing to be done. That is quite another art. Far from being a 

 large gun, and not requiring much skill to use it (as many 

 persons would have us all suppose), a punt-gun needs equally 

 as much care in alignment as does a prize-winner's rifle com- 

 peting at the range (probably more so) if good returns are to 

 result. We make statement of what may be thought a some- 

 what elaborate description of the practice needed to become a 

 good punt-gun shot, chiefly because so many shooters who are 

 totally ignorant of punt-shooting seem to think, and even 

 preach to the young idea, that it is a mere bagatelle as far as 

 accuracy of aiming the gun is concerned. This we have tried 

 to make more clear by referring to and criticising an actual 

 printed paragraph of the fact. Shooting with any fowling- 

 piece, fixed steady and aimed at an object, is not any proof of 



