360 THE FOWLER IN IRELAND. 



this by adding, save under most exceptional condi- 

 tions, and then deliberately and not a bang at ran- 

 dom. You may be in a place where constant popping 

 off is the rule at all distances ; leave such a plague- 

 smitten spot, if possible, for a quieter neighbour- 

 hood. When tied down to it you will have to take 

 your chance with the rest, by means of large shot, 

 wire cartridges, and long ranges. Such waters are 

 ruined for proper fowling ; they cannot be bettered, 

 or their frequenters taught the sense of fair-play, in 

 their own interests if for nothing else. Long shots are, 

 under every phase of fowling, failures ; the shooter 

 is too far from the birds when he fires to get quickly 

 to the scene of action ; the fowl, being only slightly 

 wounded, by the time he reaches the spot they were 

 on or over, will be off in all directions and cannot be 

 retrieved. 



I consider anything over a hundred yards a very 

 long shot, and eighty to ninety yards a long one. A 

 wild shot is inexcusable at any time. A fool can 

 pull or paddle a punt within two or three hundred 

 yards of the wildest birds as often as not. He can 

 also let his gun off, and perchance bring down a 

 couple at an inconceivable distance, if his shot be 

 large. But the cruelty of all to the fair fowler, who 

 is looking on aghast, is the subsequent boast of 

 science and superiority ; for such talk shows a repe- 

 tition will occur daily, till no duck will allow a punt 

 within a mile of it. 



Those who habitually fire long shots soon lose 

 all idea of distance. What is far to you would be 

 as nothing to them. When I hear, as I do often, 

 and read it too, that four-bore shoulder-guns will kill 



