250 PBAIEIE AND FOBEST. 



If the doctrine of the transmigration of souls were true, 

 when our earthly course in the present form was run, 

 who would not wish to be transformed into one of these 

 migratory darlings, especially if those he or she loved 

 passed through the same change. 



But to leave dear dream-land and return to cruel 

 reality. A large-bore gun, say a ten, with the lightest shot, 

 is the best weapon to use for the destruction of this family, 

 unless curlew be the principal object of your pursuit, 

 when heavier shot I should prefer No. 5 should be 

 employed. 



A retriever will be found absolutely necessary in this 

 description of sport, for the greater portion of the game 

 tilled, from being shot on the margin of the sea, fall in 

 the water. Your dog, however, should not be large, for 

 these birds, although only crippled, are easily captured, 

 and a small retriever is always preferable to a large one in 

 a boat. As sharks are numerous all along the Atlantic 

 seaboard of the United States, particularly from New 

 Jersey southward, any stray bird that should drop a long 

 way out, had better be lost, for your dog would run a great 

 risk of being seized by these marine savages if he went 

 out into the deep water. I can imagine novices and old 

 men attached to this description of shooting, but for the 

 keen sportsman, who values his bag in proportion to the 

 amount of labour and skill which has been called in prac- 

 tice to obtain it, such wholesale slaughter of confiding 

 flocks of birds must be far too tame work to meet his 

 approval. 



