WILD-FOWLING AFLOAT BY NIGHT 215 



may occur in starlight shooting may be gained from 

 the following experience. Some winters ago I made 

 a shot in a small shady bay near my fowling quarters. 

 After carefully looking round for some time, twenty- 

 eight widgeon, including dead and crippled birds, were 

 gathered, and, as far as I could ascertain, these were 

 all that fell to the gun. Passing near the spot, how- 

 ever, on my way homewards in early morning, I 

 noticed an object rolled up in the weeds under a wall 

 to leeward of the place where I had taken my shot. 

 Closer inspection confirmed my first impression, and 

 it proved to be another of our widgeon. Thus en- 

 couraged to persevere in my search, I actually picked 

 up no fewer than fourteen more birds, which had 

 drifted in shore with wind and tide, and would other- 

 wise have been inevitably lost. 



Professional gunners, who from long experience 

 by day and night are acquainted with every inch of 

 the ground over which they punt, sometimes shoot 

 by guess that is to say, they fire at the noises 

 created by feeding fowl rather than by sight. These 

 guess shots are, however, seldom satisfactory, and 

 birds are generally farther away on calm nights than 

 they seem to be by their cries. Moreover, it requires 

 no great effort of the imagination to attribute to 

 inanimate objects the semblance of fowl when the 



