BIRDS NOT TRUE GAME. 309 



wing. In this is the great tact and skill of the whole 

 performance. A good driver will land his gun to a cer- 

 tainty within ten or fifteen paces of the sandpiper, and 

 pull up his horse, describing a sort of short semicurve 

 away from the bird, which allows the shooter to spring 

 out on his right foot clear of the wheel, with his back to 

 the horse's tail, and to get a fair shot as the bird takes 

 wing. 



This sandpiper, as is the ease with most of his family, 

 rises at first with a slow unfolding of his wings and a sort 

 of momentary hover, during which it is easy to bring him 

 down ; but the next instant he is off like a bullet, and it 

 requires a quick eye and a sure judgment to stop him, 

 whether crossing the gun or going from it, when he is once 

 under full way. 



Another mode is to stalk him with a pony, trained to 

 feed gradually up to him, while the shooter stands con- 

 cealed by his forelegs and shoulder in a crouching position, 

 ready to shoot when within distance. Other persons, 

 market shooters principally, and those who kill for gain 

 as contrasted with sport, are content to build bough-houses 

 in the pastures which they haunt, and to lie perdu awaiting 

 their approach, while their confederates, in two or more 

 parties, keep continually moving to and fro, so as to put 

 them up, and keep them in motion, hoping that they will 

 fly over or alight within gunshot of their concealed enemy. 



I have never heard any one who could call the Bar- 

 tram's sandpiper, and I have been informed that it cannot 

 be done ; nevertheless, I cannot understand the wherefore; 

 nor do I see why, when the bough-house method of ambush- 



