DECEMBER. 



'LONG-SHORE [SHOOTING. 



BY OSWALD CRAWFURD. 



SHORE shooting is a form of sport with the gun, not so fashionable 

 as the grouse or partridge drive, or as the battue " shoot ;" 

 not so sociable, and perhaps not so exciting as rough shooting in 

 marsh or woodland ; not so costly, not so murderous, and not 

 so productive of rheumatism as punting after wild fowl, but a 

 sport that requires qualities of eye and hand, and endurance, 

 and a keen sporting instinct as great as these sports require, and 

 a knowledge of natural history far greater. No account of 

 Shore Shooting is to be found, so far as I am aware, in sporting 

 books none, I believe, in the excellent and fashionable series 

 edited by the Duke of Beaufort. It is not the pursuit of the 

 idle, or the rich. Shore shooting may be pursued all through the 

 autumn months, but in mid-winter it is at its best. Many of the 

 smaller shore-birds, such as the dotterel, and the ringed plover, the 

 redshank, and the sandpiper are chiefly summer or autumn 

 visitors, and afford fair, if trivial, shooting along our sea-shores 

 during the period of their visits ; but with the strong frosts of late 

 October and early November, when the sea is curling with the first 

 keen winds of winter, and changing its summer hues for the 



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