CLAPPER RAIL. 37 



considered good for the table, and a great number are killed and offered 

 for sale in the markets. Numbers are destroyed by torch light, which so 

 dazzles their eyes, as to enable persons fond of the sport to knock them 

 down with poles or paddles during high tides. It is by day, however, 

 that they are usually shot, and as this kind of sport is exceedingly plea- 

 sant, I will attempt to describe it. 



About Charleston, in South Carolina, the shooting of Marsh Hens 

 takes place from September to February, a few days in each month du- 

 ring the spring-tides. A light skiff or canoe is procured, the latter being 

 much preferable, and paddled by one or two experienced persons, the 

 sportsman standing in the bow, and his friend, if he has one with him, 

 taking his station in the stern. At an early hour they proceed to the 

 marshes, amid many boats containing parties on the same errand. There 

 is no lack of shooting-grounds, for every creek of salt-water swarms with 

 Marsh Hens. The sportsman who leads has already discharged his bar- 

 rels, and on eitjier side of his canoe a bird has fallen. As the boat moves 

 swiftly towards them, more are raised, and although he may not be ready, 

 the safety of the bird is in imminent jeopardy, for now from another bark 

 double reports are heard in succession. The tide is advancing apace, the 

 boats merely float along, and the birds, driven from place to place, seek 

 in vain for safety. Here, on a floating mass of tangled weeds, stand a 

 small group side by side. The gunner has marked them, and presently 

 nearly the whole covey is prostrated. Now, onward to that great bunch 

 of tall grass all the boats are seen to steer ; shot after shot flies in rapid 

 succession ; dead and dying lie all around on t!ie water ; the terrified sur- 

 vivors are trying to save their lives by hurried flight ; but their efforts are 

 unavailing, — one by one they fall, to rise no more. It is a sorrowful 

 sight, after all : see that poor thing gasping hard in the agonies of death, 

 its legs quivering with convulsive twitches, its bright eyes fading into 

 glazed obscurity. In a few hours, hundreds have ceased to breathe the 

 breath of life ; hundreds that erst revelled in the joys of careless exist- 

 ence, but which can never behold their beloved marshes again. The cruel 

 sportsm.an, covered with mud and mire, drenched to the skin by the 

 splashing of the paddles, his face and hands besmeared with powder, 

 stands amid the wreck which he has made, exultingly surveys his 

 slaughtered heaps, and with joyous feelings returns home with a cargo of 

 game more than enough for a family thrice as numerous as his own. How 

 joyful must be the congratulations of those which have escaped, without 



