234 FEATHERED GAME 
footed assistant in this sport, both for finding 
the game, retrieving the dead and capturing 
skulking wounded birds. When beating up the 
edges, suddenly the dog would stand, then creep- 
ing cautiously up would stop again, with his 
head cocked on one side, listening to the rail’s 
mouse-like, squeaking cries. At the word he 
would send them fiuttering heavily into the air, 
the proper moment to shoot. You need no 
heavy charge in this shooting. Your shots will 
all be at close range and you will have plenty 
of time. But to miss! That is simply dis- 
graceful! 
Perhaps the best way to hunt rails is for two 
men to take a light, flat-bottomed skiff and pole 
through the grass, shooting in turn. While 
rails are not shot here in any such numbers as 
in the Jersey marshes, any reasonable sports- 
man should be satisfied with his day’s fun, for 
by pushing through the ‘‘thatch’’ in most New 
England sea marshes a fair bag of these birds 
may generally be made. On the high tides— 
the full moon tides which are the best times to 
try this—the rails may be seen running on the 
edges, splashing about on the long grass-stems, 
which, matted together, will permit them to 
