UPLAND SHOOTING. JU» 



* pect of a good chance. The smoothness of the surface and the 

 mist makes each biiil a[){)(ar twice as large as it is, which ena- 

 bles you much more easily to catch sight of them coming up 

 from the dive. The mist is also an excellent shroud, if the ground 

 is open, wltliout a bush or tuft of reeds to hide behind, when 

 tlie l)h-ds are al)()ve water. 



'• TIk- wild-fowl shooter must never forget, that true proof of 

 his skill cMiusists in obtaining sitting shots, and stopping a num- 

 bei of fowl at one discharge; and, unless with divers, must not 

 think of a flying right and left. 



" As an instance of what may be done by patience and cau- 

 tiori, I may conclude this paper by mentioning, that the game- 

 keeper of a relation, having seen a flock of Ducks pitched upon 

 the shore, and no way of getting near them but over a bare 

 field, crawled Hal uj)on his face a distance of three hundred 

 yards, pushing his gun before him, not daring: even to raise his 

 head, and at last got within such ftiir distance, that he stopped 

 four with his first barrel, and one with the other, securing them 

 all. His gun was only a small fowling-piece. I should add 

 that he had been trained to deer-stalking, under his father, from 

 a boy." 



It may, perhaps, be thought worthy of remark, that this is the 

 single quotation which I shall offer to my readers from any 

 English author, as regards the mode of beating for, pursuing, 

 or killing any kind of game. When I come to treat of gun- 

 nery, the breeds, breaking, diseases, and treatment of dogs, and 

 the like topics, it is on British sporting authors especially, almost 

 exclusively, that I shall rely ; but, in fact, the game of America 

 is so different, the places and modes of taking it so much at va- 

 riance, and the habits of the few animals of chase, which are 

 nearly allied in the two countries, are so completely distinct 

 from those of England, that the precepts of the best English 

 sporting writers are iiseless here. Of Col. Hawker's great 

 work, above half — which half was very properly rejected by its 

 able American editor — relates to fowl shooting, and fowling 



