LEAVES FKOM A GAME BOOK. 185 



position through his spy glass, he started straight for 

 the birds, and having put them up, it was a matter 

 of chance as to whether they came over us. After a 

 few days we began to learn their line of flight to the 

 sea, and profiting by this, the geese on several occasions 

 had come so near to Pigot that he had heard the 

 No. 1 shot from his twelve-bore rattle against the birds 

 without producing any other efiect than to quicken 

 their flight. Determined to alter this state of affairs, 

 off he went to Messrs. "Weston, the well-known Brighton 

 gunmakers, from whom he borrowed a double eight- 

 bore, weighing some twelve pounds. The first day he 

 took this ponderous weapon out we soon found a small 

 lot of thirteen white-fronted geese busy feeding on the 

 grass, so, after getting into position, the birds were 

 duly moved. My friend sat behind a gate-post on a 

 frozen puddle, while the disturbed geese came quite 

 low, only a few yards off the ground, directly on to 

 him. Taken by surprise, he fired instantly, only to 

 miss, when the recoil of the heavy gun, helped by 

 the position in which he was sitting, rolled him over 



