330 THE RAILS AND REED BIRDS 



In the West, the shooting, when it is practised at all, 

 is the same. The start and finish, of course, are not 

 dependent upon the tide, but we may go at any time 

 where the water is sufficient to float a boat. 



I was once shooting ducks with a friend in the 

 marshes in Northern Indiana. It was in September, 

 and the migrating ducks had not come from the North 

 and the local ducks were quite wild from much shoot- 

 ing. One day when they were not flying well I went 

 off to some good snipe grounds, and my companion 

 instructed his punter to move him about in the wild 

 rice while he shot at the rails. Although most of his 

 shot was too large he made a bag of about one hun- 

 dred birds in a very few hours' shooting. I have no 

 doubt I could have killed a thousand birds on many 

 Western marshes if the daylight had been long enough 

 and I had cared to do so. 



Success does not usually attend the sportsman who 

 tries for the rails afoot. They run so rapidly through 

 the reeds and rice that it is almost impossible to flush 

 them. I have shot them along the western prairie 

 sloughs when snipe-shooting, walking close to the 

 taller grasses in the slough and taking an occasional 

 shot as a rail fluttered out. An industrious little span- 

 iel will flush some birds where the ground is such that 

 he can move rapidly. 



There are thousands of the small rails in the rushes 

 of the St. Clair flats, and I often bagged a few of them, 

 driven up by my spaniel, when snipe-shooting. 



Few sportsmen in the West, however, make a prac- 

 tice of shooting rails. There are still too many ducks, 

 cock, snipe, sandpipers, and plover, to say nothing of 

 the upland birds. 



