1 82 GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



ing without cessation, of man and boat through masses of standing 

 reed for two or three hours. As the skiif is propelled, the rail, 

 forced to fly by the rising tide and the quick approach of the 

 shooter, presents an easy and simple mark, the poleman attracting 

 the sportsman's attention by a " mark right " or " mark left," as the 

 direction may be, the recovering being the most difficult, owing to 

 the great sameness of the surrounding reed. But such is the skill of 

 these pushers in marking down with their white wooden blocks, of 

 which four to six are always at hand, the birds as they fall, that we 

 have known five birds to have been killed before one was boated, 

 and all were recovered. Seldom, if ever, is a dead Rail lost by any 

 of these men. 



Shifting to grounds that allow the ingress of the boat at a later 

 state of the tide the sport is continued, and shot after shot is 

 had in quick succession, each pusher striving to outdo his fellows, 

 until the ebb drives the shooter from the flats to count his head of 

 birds, and to learn who the lucky " high boat " is, for be it known 

 a gre.at honor is attached to the gun and to the pusher of the for- 

 tunate skiff. 



Frequently one hundred Rail are killed during a tide. Some- 

 times one hundred and twenty, and never less than fifty, if there 

 is any water at all. It is common while being pushed through the 

 weeds to have shots at teal and larger ducks as they jump from 

 some ditch or pool on the flats, and it is best always to have a spare 

 gun with No. 5 or 6 shot for them. As for rail, we use Nos. 10 

 and 12. A breech-loading gun is invaluable for rail shooting, and 

 the " high boat " is generally found to be the possessor of one of 

 these improved arms. Last season Rail were unusually plenty, and 

 shooting lasted well into the latter part of October, but we had very 

 few very high tides, one hundred and seven rail being the greatest 

 number of birds shot in a single day. 



Before breech-loaders were adopted it required considerable 

 care in fixing up all things necessary for the rapid loading of muz- 

 zle-loaders, such as " rail boxes," shot cartridges, loading rods, 

 etc. But now with a breech-loader, which can be secured from a 

 friend, or hired at a gun store, and with from one hundred to one 

 hundred and fifty properly loaded shells, say with two drachms of 

 Sowder and three-quarters of an ounce of No. 1 2 shot, one is pre- 



