BIRDS NOT TRUE GAME. 309 
wing. In thisis 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 case 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, J cannot understand the wherefore, 
nor do I see why, when the bough-house method of ambush- 
