WILD FOWLING 



tion : it is so dark that he can take no aim, for if he could dis- 

 cern the birds they would also see him ; and being extremely 

 timorous would seek some other pasture : though they march 

 with noise they feed in silence : some indistinct noises, how- 

 ever, issue from so vast a concourse : he directs his piece there- 

 fore towards the sound, fires at a venture, and instantly catch- 

 ing up his other gun, discharges it where he supposes the flock 

 to rise on the wing : his gains for the night are now decided and 

 he has only to gather his harvest : he immediately puts on his 

 mud pattens (flat square pieces of board, which the Fowler 

 ties to his feet, that he may not sink in the ooze) ignorant 

 yet of his success, and goes groping about in the dark in quest 

 of his booty, picking up sometimes many, and perhaps not 

 one : so hardly does the poor fowler earn a few shillings, 

 exposed in an open boat, during a solitary winter night to 

 weather as it comes, rain, hail, or snow, on a bleak coast, a 

 league probably from the beach, and often liable, without 

 great care, to be fixed in the mud where he would become an 

 inevitable prey to the returning tide. I have heard one of 

 these poor fellows say he never takes a dog with him in these 

 expeditions, because no dog could bear the cold which he is 

 obliged to suffer : and after all, others frequently enjoy more 

 from his labours than himself, for the tide often throws next 

 day, on different parts of the shore, many of the birds which 

 he had killed, but could not find in the night.' 



The pursuit of the ' Punt Shooters ' says Daniel, is haz- 

 ardous, especially when there is much ice as the craft may 

 be nipped in the floes. The punt shooter's gun ' carried as 

 much as a little cannon ' and was used in the same way as 

 the stanchion-gun invented a few years later by Colonel Peter 

 Hawker ; the fowler lying in the bottom of the craft with 

 the gun pointed over the bow ready to pull trigger as soon 

 as he came near enough to. ' rattle with his feet on the bottom 

 of his punt,' whereby having sprung the fowl, he fired and 

 ' cut a lane through their ranks.' 



Colonel Peter Hawker had condemned the Hampshire 

 P 113 



