io8 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



To have much success in gunning, and most espe- 

 cially in night shooting, it is positively necessary that 

 a man should be well acquainted with his ground. 

 Unless this is the case, it is impossible for him to get 

 on at all. He must know what places the fowls 

 frequent to feed, and to which they come from many 

 miles out at sea. He must know every creek and 

 corner, which, unless he is an habitud of the place, he 

 cannot find out. He must also know what the state 

 of the tides are, or he will find himself left high and 

 dry. Thus you will find that the professional gunner, 

 who shoots for his bread-and-butter, generally lives on 

 the spot, and works his own punt. 



It is now some years since I spent some weeks at 

 Inverness for wildfowl shooting. I shot some ducks 

 and widgeon on the Moray Firth, when it did not 

 blow too hard, which it often did. I also got some 

 Brent geese Anser bernicla, Lin. which most people 

 call barnacles ; and in Ireland they call them Wexford 

 barnacles. 



I did not do anything very great, for the weather 

 was very open, and when this is the case fowl do 

 not get down to the water's edge as they do in hard 

 weather ; to say nothing of their being much more 

 wide-awake when they can get their food easily 



