COLLECTING. 9 



jay or golden-winged woodpecker, at a distance 

 of thirty or forty yards ; then if more penetration 

 is necessary, more powder may be used with the 

 same quantity of shot, but this will cause the shot 

 to scatter more. A good collecting gun, one 

 which will kill small birds with a very small 

 amount of ammunition and little noise, has long 

 been a desideratum. I have tried many kinds, 

 but nothing has proved so satisfactory as a small 

 repeating gun of my own invention, and which is 

 manufactured by us. This gun consists of two 

 brass tubes, a smaller one within a larger, with an 

 air space between, thus greatly deadening the 

 sound ; and both are securely fastened to a finely 

 nickel-plated five-shot revolver. We make two 

 sizes, a twenty-two gauge, the report of which is 

 very slight, and a thirty-two gauge, which makes a 

 little louder noise. The former will kill warblers 

 at fifteen yards, and the latter at twenty yards, 

 while birds like jays, thrushes, and robins, may be 

 brought down with the thirty-two gauge at a 

 distance of ten yards. This gun served me well 

 in Florida last winter, and I killed at least two- 

 thirds of the birds that I collected there with it. 

 The light report of such a gun does not frighten 

 the birds, while the fact that one nearly always 



