UPLAND SHOOTING. 



207 



round you, or fly past you, just out of gunshot, tempting you all 

 the tiint- with hopes that will still prove false, unless you have 

 some such device as Eley's cartridges, by which to tuni the 

 shrewduc^ss of this cunniiig little schemer to its own destruc- 

 tion. 



In Rhode Island, where alone the sport is now pursued sys- 

 tematically, the mode achipted is this, — the shooter, accompa- 

 nied by a skilful driver, on whom, by the way, the whole onus 

 of the business rests, and to whom all the merit of success, if 

 attained, is attributable, is mounted in what is termed in New 

 England a chaise, that is to say, an old-fashioned gig with a top. 

 In this convenience, he kneels down, with his left leg out of the 

 carriage, and his foot firmly planted on the step, holding his 

 gun ready to shoot at an instant's notice. The driver, perceiv- 

 ing the birds, as they are running and feeding on the open sur- 

 face, selects one, according to his judgment, and drives round it 

 rapidly in concentric circles, until he gets within gunshot of it, 

 and perceives by its motions that it will not pennit a nearer ap- 

 proach. He then makes a short half turn from it, pulling the 

 horse short up, at the same instant ; and at that very same in- 

 stant, for the Sandpiper rises invariably at the moment in which 

 the chaise stops, the shooter steps out lightly to the ground, and 

 kills his bird, before it has got well upon the wing. In the 

 timimx of all this various work, on the part of the driver and the 

 •Tunnci-, tliere is a good deal of skill requisite, and, of couj-se, a 

 good deal of excitement. But the real sport, and the real skill, 

 are both on tlie part of the driviM-, whose duty it is to deliver 

 }iis marksman as nearly as possible to the game, yet never to 

 run the thing so close, as to allow the Sandpiper to take wing 

 before he has pulled up. The difference in the judgment and 

 skill of drivers is immense ; and there is one gentleman in New 

 York, n well-known, and old friend of the public, who is said to 

 be so infinitely superior to all others, that the gun in his chaise, 

 even if it be handled by the inferior shot, is sure to come off 

 the winner. It is not unusual, I am told, to bag from twenty 

 to twenty-five couple of these delicious birds in a day's sport, 



