230 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING, 
ward, and thus give him the best possible chance for knock- 
ing them over with a rifle, or with a breech-loader charged 
with buckshot or No. 1 shot. It is of little use to shoot 
at them when the breast is presented, except with a rifle, 
as the mass of feathers in front is sufficiently dense to 
turn shot unless it is fired at close range, and even then 
a person is not always sure of securing them. 
During heavy head or side winds they fly close to the 
land, and this gives a person ashore an opportunity 
of bagging afew; but they fly high in fine weather, and 
when resting on the water they keep as far away from the 
land as they can, as all their apprehensions of danger 
are founded on its proximity. I have sometimes tried to 
steal upon them from the bullrushes or shrubbery 
growing along the shore, but I was generally unsuccessful, 
for the moment my form appeared they swam rapidly 
away or took to flight. They are certainly keen of vis- 
ion, and seem to know by intuition that man is their 
greatest enemy, for they will flee from him at once, 
whereas a bear, a wolf, or a fox, causes them no annoy- 
ance, and may romp about in their sight without causing 
any action on their part except a stare of curiosity. The 
difficulty of making a good bag of swans can easily be 
appreciated by those who have tried it in regions where 
they are hunted much; hence, a man who brings down 
his two or three brace in a day feels rather proud of his 
achievement. This difficulty is all the greater from the 
fact that they do not, so far as my experience goes, an- 
swer to calls, either on the wing or the water, so that 
a person has no resource left except to shoot them as they 
pass his place of concealment, or to steal upon them 
while they are paddling about in some narrow stream or 
tarn, and tumble them over before they can rise for 
flight. A man who is fonder of watching their actions 
than of making a large bag, would prefer creeping upon 
them in the water to bringing them down on the land, 
