416 SHOULDER GUNS FOR WILDFOWL. 



taining his wind, which sets them at once on the alert, 

 so that the slightest circumstance then suffices to 

 spring them. 



For this reason among" others, when the sportsman 

 carries only an ordinary fowling-piece, it is often better 

 policy to be satisfied with following a small knot of 

 birds, rather than a large flock, some of whose out- 

 lying sentinels are apt to catch sight of him, though 

 he may be so placed that the main company cannot 

 do so; it is rare that numerous hosts can be success- 

 fully approached on water, or on mud flats, near enough 

 for a small gun to make a heavy shot. Flight shoot- 

 ing is the best chance for the fowling-piece; and big 

 companies upon banks on their last legs with rising 

 tide, for the punt gun ; great slaughter may of course 

 ensue in the latter case if a shot can be put in, at the 

 right moment, with a heavy piece of wildfowl artillery. 



The best sport for the shore gunner is obtained by 

 small companies of birds coming past him on the wing, 

 either going out to the feeding grounds at night, or 

 better still returning to the flight ponds, from these 

 grounds, at dawn. A little low-lying mist or fog, not 

 too thick to hide objects up to 30 or 40 yards away, 

 is then sometimes very useful, as the birds cannot see 

 the fowler till they are close to him. Colonel Hawker's 

 observations to the contrary (already quoted), refer 

 only to punt shooting on marine estuaries: but he 

 expressly guards himself by confining his remarks to 

 that, and says " Fog, in the fens and marshes, is 

 sometimes the best weather, although quite the reverse 

 on the sea." * This, if we might venture to say so, 



* Instructions to Sportsmen, by Lieut.-Col. P. Hawker, 6th Edit. 

 1830, p. 335- 



