CHAPTER XVII. 



WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 



* * * "And oh, the joy! 

 The passion which lit up his brow, to con 

 The feats of slight and cunning skill by which 

 Their haunts were neared." 



THE FOWLER : By Delta. 



THERE are so many varieties in the sport of wild-fowl shooting, that 

 it is necessary to arrange them under distinct heads, with the obser- 

 vations applicable to each particular branch. But, as some of the 

 remarks may be applied in general terms to every branch, it is the 

 author's purpose to endeavour to impress upon the young wild-fowler 

 a few indispensable injunctions ; by attending strictly to which, he 

 may be the better capable of pursuing the sport successfully, and 

 may not meet with so many disappointments as he must expect by 

 disregarding them. 



It is an easy matter to walk across a stubble with a double-barrelled 

 gun on the arm, find a covey of partridges, and bring down a bird 

 with each barrel ; still easier is it to spring pheasants from a cover, 

 and knock them down with unerring precision, the chief secret of 

 success being, to acquire a habit of holding the gun straight an art 

 so readily acquired at the present day, that a really bad shot is a 

 personage seldom to be met with. It is somewhat curious to note 

 the ideas which prevailed so late as the sixteenth century, in regard 

 to the fowling-piece ; and which in those days was quite of secondary 

 consideration compared with other methods of fowling.* 



* Markham observes : " The next engine to these is the gun or fowling-piece, 

 which is a generall engine, and may serve for any fowle, great or little, whatsoever; 

 for it hath no respect at what it striketh, being within the levell. And of the fowl- 

 ing piece you shall understand that to be the best, which is of the longest barrell, as 

 five foote and a halfe or sixe foote, and the boare indifferent, as somewhat under 



