1 66 SPORT IN EUROPE 



through the rushes and reeds a few weeks beforehand, and driving 



^ , done with boats and doos, the oruns beino- posted on 



Duck, * * * ^ 



Wild Geese, terra fir ma, or also in boats. Geese and swans are 

 and Swans. generally shot by flight-shooting ; but these birds are 

 rare, and only to be found near the North Sea. Punting for wild 

 fowl, or shore-shooting with heavy guns, is not practised as a sport, 

 not even, as far as the writer's knowledge goes, by professionals. 



Pheasants are not indigenous, but are largely reared and kept 

 exactly the same as in England. Hand-rearing, or breeding by 



Turkey hens, is the general practice. Silesia, with its 



Pheasants. i r i i • 



large estates, is the El Dorado of pheasant shooting. 



The best wild shoot is Ruppersdorf in Silesia (Count Saurma); 



the best shoots with artificial rearing at Gross Strehlitz (Count 



Zschirschky Renard), Ober Glogau (Count Oppersdorff), and 



Kuchelnna (Prince Lichnovsky), where the Emperor shot 1,125 ^^ 



one day in 1895. 



These marine animals may be mentioned too among the quarry 



of German sportsmen who frequent the sea-coast. The seal is 



found on the whole North Sea coast ; their number is 



Seals and 



_ , estimated at from 200 to ^00, and those annually shot 



Porpoises. ^ ^ 



number about fifty. The hunter lies in wait on a sand- 

 bank at ebb-tide and shoots them in the head with a rifle. Recovering 

 their bodies is the greatest difficulty, if death is not instantaneous. The 

 record bag was made by a Russian Prince, who retrieved the wounded 

 himself by swimming, and got thirteen in five days. Porpoises are 

 shot when huntino- for food on the surface, from a sailinof boat, a larofe- 

 bore rifle being used. It is rather difficult work, as the animal swims 



