196 RAIL-SHOOTING. 



balances himself, and wields his long pole dexter- 

 ously on a small platform at the stern. 



Silently a bird, rising close to the boat, wings its 

 way, with pendent legs and feeble strokes, towards 

 some one of its numerous hiding-places ; instantly 

 the punter plants his pole firmly in tlie bottom, hold- 

 ing the skiff stationary, the sportsman brings up his 

 piece, and, with deliberate aim, sends the charge 

 straight after the doomed rail, which pitches head- 

 long out of sight. The punter has marked him by 

 that single wild rice-stalk with the broken top, and 

 heads the boat at once towards the place ; but ere 

 he has advanced a dozen feet, another bird starts and 

 offers to the expectant sportsman, who has his gun 

 still " at a ready," another favorable chance, and, 

 meeting the same fate, falls into that low bunch of 

 matted wild oats. The breech-loader opens, the 

 charges are extracted and others inserted, just in 

 time to make sure of two rail that rise simul- 

 taneously, still ere the first has been reached, and 

 which are both tumbled over and marked down 

 one, however, wing-tipped, and never to be seen by 

 mortal eye again. 



Thus have I experienced it on the Delaware, at 

 Hackensack, and, in former days, among the tribu- 

 taries of Jamaica Bay, and at many other places where 

 more or less success has attended me. Although 

 never having enjoyed great luck, never having 

 advanced beyond the first hundred, and claiming to 

 be no such marksman as several of my friends, I 

 have had wondrous sport. Of a good day, when the 



