BEWARE OF SHARKS. 241 



this family, unless curlew be the principal object of 

 your pursuit, when heavier shot I should prefer No. 5 

 should be employed. 



A retriever will be found absolutely necessary in 

 this description of sport, for the greater portion of the 

 game killed, from being shot on the margin of the sea, 

 fall in the water. Your dog, however, should not be 

 large, for these birds, although only crippled, are easily 

 captured, and a small retriever is always preferable 

 to a large one in a boat. As sharks are numerous all 

 along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, par- 

 ticularly from New Jersey southward, any stray bird 

 that should drop a long way out, had better be lost, 

 for your dog would run a great risk of being seized by 

 these marine savages if he went out into the deep 

 water. I can imagine novices and old men attached 

 to this descripiton of shooting, but for the keen sports- 

 man, who values his bag in proportion to the amount 

 of labour and skill which has been called in practice 

 to obtain it, such wholesale slaughter of confiding 

 flocks of birds must be far too tame work to meet his 

 approval. 



