WILD-FOWLING AFLOAT BY NIGHT 207 



course, the moon is very bright and clear? Authori- 

 ties on wild-fowling have recommended different 

 contrivances by which you may be enabled to take 

 a full sight on fowl by night, such, for instance, as 

 india-rubber rings fastened on the muzzle of the gun, 

 a patch of white paint round the sight of the gun, &c. ; 

 but, personally, I cannot say I have found them of 

 much service in actual practice. To avoid any uncer- 

 tainty it is best to lay the gun on the wooden gun-rest 

 before nightfall, at such an elevation that the shot will 

 sweep the water from twenty up to a hundred yards 

 from the muzzle. This is an old-fashioned system, but 

 I believe it is still the most practical. In my humble 

 opinion it is a mistake to fire these big guns from hand 

 by night, and as flying-shots are seldom taken, except- 

 ing, perhaps, at geese, a ' set ' gun, which you know 

 covers the fowl at a certain range, will give the best 

 results. Circumstances may, of course, arise when it 

 becomes necessary slightly to alter the elevation of 

 the gun-barrel in order to shoot fowl at closer range 

 than was anticipated; but this can ordinarily be 

 accomplished with the aid of the gun-rest. 



For night-shooting many punters use compara- 

 tively small-sized shot, such as Walker & Parker's 

 No. i, or single A averaging from sixty to seventy 

 pellets to the ounce ; and as the distances at which 



