MANAGEMENT OF THE PUNT-GUN. 139 



be condemned, because it induces wild-fowl to forsake the water, 

 especially if they are fired at by night. 



I should be much disposed to believe, that Col. Hawker's successful 

 tests of this machine were confined to the shots to which he alludes 

 having- made with it at leverets, starlings and some other land- 

 birds, less watchful than wild-fowl. Most sportsmen are familiar 

 with the anecdote he relates, of a marvellous shot at starlings with 

 the stanchion-gun, on Lord Rodney's estate, at Alresford. If the 

 Colonel had ever made a successful shot at wild-fowl, on open 

 country, by aid of the machine, why not relate the circumstance, in- 

 stead of the less sportsmanlike proceeding of shooting leverets and 

 starlings with a stanchion- gun ? 



Many of Colonel Hawker's inventions were mere experiments ; 

 some of them thoroughly impracticable, and such as were never 

 successfully employed ; but, notwithstanding, they are introduced 

 in his work on Guns and Shooting, with all the confidence imaginable. 



