18 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING 



WILD-FOWL SHOOTING ON THE HIGHLAND 

 LOCHS. 



THE exciting nature of the winter shooting on one of our 

 large Highland lochs, if well frequented by water-fowl, 

 can hardly be conceived by a stranger to the sport. It, 

 in fact, partakes so completely of the nature of deer- 

 stalking, that a man who is an adept at the one would 

 be sure, with a little practice, to be equally so at the 

 other. I should have been astonished to find this amuse- 

 ment so little followed by gentlemen, had I not some- 

 times witnessed the bungling manner in which they set 

 about it : it is, indeed, as rare to find a gentleman who 

 knows any thing of this sport as a rustic who has not a 

 pretty good smattering of it. The reason is obvious. 

 The squire, who may be a tolerable shot, is all eager 

 anxiety until he can show off his right and left upon 

 the devoted fowl ; while the clod, having only his rusty 

 single barrel to depend upon, and knowing that if the 

 birds should rise, his chance is very considerably lessen- 

 ed, uses all the brains of which he is master in order to 

 get the sitting shot ; and knowing also from experience? 

 that the nearer he gets to his game the better his chance, 

 spares no trouble to come to close quarters. He will 

 crawl for a hundred yards like a serpent, although he 



