WIGEON. 37 



does he not fire ? " says a looker-on. "No hurry, 

 no hurry," exclaims an old hand too old for such 

 doings himself, but with eye bright and keen as 

 of yore. " They are within shot," the veteran adds, 

 " but the birds have not their heads up yet ; " for 

 no fowl can spring without first raising the head and 

 stretching the neck. Seventy yards is a nice dis- 

 tance, but sixty is better, and gives fewer cripples. 

 The shooters know that,savingamissfire which may 

 Heaven for efend! they have as good as thirty couple 

 of fowl in the punt at this moment. Their heads are 

 up. Now ! NOW! for the love of . Ah! well pulled ; 

 just as they lifted too a ticklish job, but the right 

 way to do it. When fowl are very thick on smooth 

 water or level ground, the outside rank protects the 

 inner from the charge, if taken as they sit. " A 

 close shot is a good shot," remarks one brother to 

 the other, as they paddle ashore an hour later with 

 seventy odd Wigeon and Teal to their credit. 



Some who read these lines may recognize the 

 brothers, and more than one, perchance, the very 

 shot alluded to. To fire a small gun carrying three- 

 quarters of a pound, on an occasion as that referred 

 to, is like throwing your hat at the fowl. For a big 

 shot you want a big gun, which no single-handed 

 punt could carry. It is, however, not so much the 

 total number of Wigeon in a company that promises 

 a good return, but the way they are placed. I have 

 killed from seventy to eighty birds when the aggre- 

 gate did not exceed two hundred ; and at other 

 times obtained but twenty or thirty when perhaps a 

 couple of thousand were fired at. The companies 

 of Wigeon are so immense off the coast of Ireland, 



