AVERY BIRD COLLECTION 39 



and shot. His desire to become a wing-shot exc'eeds the 

 wish to save his ammunition. 



"Sam Gibson (colored sportsman), owns a pointer and 

 a breech loader. Sam tells me that he has killed up to 

 the first of January eighty partridges. I have no reason 

 to doubt Sam's word, as Asbury McShann says that Sam, 

 at a single shot, killed seven birds out of nine huddled 

 under a bush, on Mr. J. McCrary's 'Jenkins' Place.' Of 

 the two birds escaping, one was badly wounded. I have 

 seen Sam shoot, myself, and I know that he shoots fairly 

 well on the wing. 



"Oliver Ward, colored sportsman, bought an Irish set- 

 ter from John Cocke. Owns a breech loader, shoots birds 

 on the wing. Killed seven on Thanksgiving Day. Why 

 should not Oliver shoot well? He has fired more shots 

 at birds since the emancipation of our slaves than the 

 average white man. 



"Jno. Paine (colored sportsman) owns an Irish setter 

 bitch, purchased from Jno. Cocke for five dollars; also 

 other pointing dogs. Oliver Ward informs me that John 

 killed eight or ten partridges on Thanksgiving Day. 



"Sol May (colored sportsman) owns a setter bitch or 

 dog; at any rate he owns a pointing dog, for I have seen 

 it. Sol shoots on the wing. 



"The three last named gentlemen have exhausted their 

 resources of eloquence to get a dog from me. 



"Now Maus William, don't you think you ought to give 

 your old servant a dog?' 



" 'My price is twenty-five dollars,' said I, 'for a puppy 

 two months old.' But may ruin overtake me and may 

 my right hand be palsied when it receives a dollar from 

 a 'nigger' for one of my noble dogs ! 



"Sam Lawson shoots partridges on the wing whenever 

 he has the opportunity. This sportsman when quite 

 small used to hold the horses for the Cobbs boys when 

 they went shooting, and marked down birds for them. 

 Thus he became enamored of field sports and wing shoot- 

 ing especially. Sam hunted many days during the sea- 

 son of '90 and '91 with one of Mr. Cobbs' dogs. Having 

 lived on the place, Sam knew the dog, and thus managed 

 to entice him off either by firing a gun in the neighbor- 



