RAIL-SHOOTING. 313 
the shooter has once learned to stand up in a Delaware 
skiff, and has got his sea legs on board, it is impossible ; at 
least for any man who can, under any circumstances, kill 
any thing. 
The only things to do are to stand steady, shoot slowly, 
and load quickly; by observing these three rules, the 
merest beginner, if he have a good poleman, can rival the 
best and oldest sportsman in the land. 
The right gun is the lightest you have, and that which 
scatters most. If any one were to think of having a 
piece built on purpose, it should be one of 26 or 28 inches 
barrels and 11 or 12 gauge, and one should use out of it 
about 1} drachm of powder and % oz. of mustard-seed 
shot. The handiest way to load, which cannot be done 
toe fast, as the birds often keep rising in a constant 
stream, is to have the shot loose in a wooden box or bowl, 
with a charger lying in it placed on a thwart in front of you, 
with powder-horn and cut wadding beside it, and a loading 
rod at hand to save the trouble of drawing and returning 
the ramrod. <A small light landing-net is convenient, 
fixed ona long handle, for retrieving the dead birds which. 
have fallen in the water, without altering the course of 
the boat. 
It is well to have a larger gun in the boat, either a 
common fowling-piece or a double duck gun, of 10 or 12 
lbs., as well for shooting at the vast flocks of reed-birds 
which frequently cross the boat, as for picking up chance 
shots at green or blue-winged teal ; at both of which birds, 
as well as at the gallinule, or common water-hen—a bird 
of a closely allied family, which is frequent in the South, 
14 
