SHORE SHOOTING 121 



and maybe a pricked goose ; with any luck at all it should 

 always contain a dozen different specimens of the feathered 

 denizens of the shore. It is not altogether unknown to find a 

 goodly-sized pike in the shore-shooter's bag, as they may 

 often be shot in the sluice dykes adjoining the marsh walls. 

 It is even on record that a wall-shooter actually shot and 

 bagged a fair-sized skate which was floundering on the flats ; 

 another, that he had killed a seal with one barrel and a Jenny 

 wren with the other. A favourite plan is to carry along a 

 spade arid dig a hole in the sand, in which to await the 

 arrival of the birds, or utilise a stalking-horse. 



Decoys are also often resorted to in various ways, accord- 

 ing to the fancy of their worker or the nature of the ground. 



A simple invention of the author's consists in so dressing 

 a rain-coat that it answers two purposes ; one as a shelter 

 against wet weather, the other as a shelter against the birds. 

 This is brought about with the greatest ease imaginable. The 

 waterproof, a light one, is painted yellow on one side (the 

 same tint as sand usually is) and a dullish brown on the other, 

 with brighter spots daubed about it haphazard, represent- 

 ing, as near as the artist can, an estuary beach. This will be 

 found to answer amazingly, for when extended full length on 

 the shore under a covering of this kind, not moving a muscle 

 until the birds are well within range, the deception is complete, 

 and many are the surprises, with accompanying telling shots, 

 that it assists in bringing about. 



The seventh method is perhaps the most enjoyable of any, 

 as provisions and minor luxuries desired can be carried 

 without being in the slightest way impeded thereby. It 

 is managed with the aid of an assistant in a small punt, or 

 other craft suitable for the purpose, which is also often em- 

 ployed to drive the birds over the ambushed shooter ; but its 

 real intent is to meet him at certain preconcerted rendezvous, 

 poling him up creeks and bays' otherwise inaccessible, where 

 the banks or sides may be sufficiently high to afford a partial 

 shelter. Thus the birds which rise therefrom may be bagged 

 and many chances at others leading over taken advantage of. 



