WITH A STANCHION GUN. 381 



haste to row (or if on land, to run) till you get under 

 them, as they fly very low, and will seldom break their 

 course ; and, therefore, may be frequently killed by sur- 

 rounding them with boats, and having a gunning-punt 

 in advance, ready to fire as they pass. We afterwards 

 got two more of them by this means. Be careful, how- 

 ever, always to let a swan pass you, so as to shoot under 

 his feathers, or you may as well fire at a wool-pack. 

 (This, I believe, I named before, as well as that his 

 head must be your target, if you have only a common 

 ' gun.) In 1829, and again this last hard winter, I had 

 excellent sport with the hoopers ; and if the tide, the 

 ice, and the other gunners, would only allow me to 

 proceed, I generally got one, or more, whenever they 

 appeared on our coast. But, before I launched the 

 punt, that has been before described, I thought a great 

 deal of killing two or three hoopers in a season. Before 

 going up to hoopers, put a few large pieces of ice on the 

 deck of your punt, in order to prevent these long-necked 

 birds from seeing into it. If a swan rises out of shot, 

 where he is likely to go entirely away, present your 

 small gun very far before him, and over him, and by 

 thus firing, you will sometimes make him " haul his 

 wind," as a sailor calls it, and come across, a fair shot 

 for your large gun. 



Hundreds of common swans are mistaken for hoopers. 

 In hard weather they are driven from gentlemen's seats, 

 and still more so from the large swanneries ; such, for 

 instance, as that at Abbotsbury, in Dorsetshire. They 

 then frequently repair to the shore ; and by congre- 

 gating in flocks, and there getting driven about and 

 shot at, become quite as wild as the real hoopers, from 



