232 STARLING. 



starlings took care not to quarter at Alresford the next 

 night. 



*#* Many people " can't swallow the Starling story." No ! nor 

 could they an orange, unless dissected ; so now let us dissect the 

 " Starling story." Those who doubt that starlings will sometimes 

 assemble " ten thousand strong" let them ask any fat-man : that 

 a huge swivel-gun will shoot with three times the force of a little 

 game-gun refer to the schedules of trial: that there are 19,200 

 grains in 21b. of No. 8 shot count an ounce of it and see: that 

 less than five grains would kill one starling with a common gun 

 ask any sportsman : that the gun which killed these birds weighs 

 but little under 200lbs. ask Tom Fullard, who made the barrels. 

 Then where is the miracle ? Why the miracle is this that people, 

 for want of one minute's calculation, should consider what is a matter 

 of course as an impossibility ! and that gentlemen who witnessed the 

 performance should be laughed at when relating the circumstance ! 

 In justice to them, I feel it right to explain it. But for my own 

 part, I should not have wasted ink on the subject ; because any good 

 judge would know what large guns are capable of doing; and there- 

 fore a writer who gave false information would not only have his 

 book soon found out, and crushed, as it ought to be, but himself ex- 

 posed and hooted at for a quack. The thing speaks for itself. But 

 I find it more difficult to comply with my friends' request to be 

 serious on the subject, than I should do to go and kill another such 

 a basket of starlings. While on the strain of scepticism, I should 

 observe, that the account of Buckle killing thirty-five geese at a shot 

 was ridiculed, though he tells me he did it by night and on the mud. 

 This may, or may not, be true ; but I saw Captain Ward, with one 

 pound of shot, pick up twenty geese, and lose nearly as many more, 

 by day and in the water; which for difficulty is treble the perform- 

 ance, in comparison with the other; as any old gunner will tell you. 

 But as to these matters, it would be as unreasonable to expect the 

 editor of a newspaper (who perhaps never saw a stanchion-gun fired), 

 to pronounce a fair judgment on the performance of a coast-gunner, 

 as to expect that a coast-gunner (who perhaps can scarcely write his 

 own name) would compose a leading article for a newspaper. If some 

 of our journalists were informed of sixty and seventy wildfowl having 

 been killed at a shot, they would scarcely find ink enough for their 

 notes of admiration ! And yet I can assure them from the best 



