AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
143 
end of September, at which time they may for the first 
be accounted fit for the table. From the 20th of Septem- 
ber to the 10th of October is the season of the greatest 
plenitude and fatness, and is therefore considered the pro- 
per period for shooting, and the havoc made during the 
lapse of these few weeks amongst these feathered visitants, 
is astounding and almost incredible. 
To those who are unacquainted with the bird, (as is the 
case almost wholly to the north,) the quantity killed during 
the shooting season, would seem entirely fabulous; but 
those who are accustomed to shooting them, will rate 
the quantity enumerated below as moderate. The writer 
had the curiosity, a few years since, to take the aggregate 
of some shooters on several successive days at one of the 
favourite places of resort near the city; and as these days 
were considered at the time a fair average for the season, 
it was computed that not less than 24,000 Rail were 
slaughtered in twenty days, by the gunners which came 
to this place. Although this is considered the most pub- 
lic place of resort at this season, still there are several 
others, to which numbers of persons concentrate, and 
should I say that one hundred thousand Rail are killed 
and brought to Philadelphia during the short lapse of one 
month, it would be within bounds. 
This sport is followed, not altogether for the value of 
the birds, but the amusement it affords, and the little la- 
bour required on the part of the shooter. The Rail shoot- 
er enjoys a satisfaction peculiar to this sport, which is not 
likened to shooting of any other description — it is unattend- 
ed with fatigue, and was it not for the heat of the sun to 
which you sometimes become exposed, it would be for the 
time it lasts, one of the most agreeable pastimes known. 
The shooter mounts his buggy, drives a few miles, enters 
his boat, and is rowed gently along the margin of the reeds 
until the tide is sufficiently high to bear the batteau over 
the flats, when he stations himself in the forepart of the 
boat, and shoots as the disturbed Rail rises to escape — he 
has no other work than to load his gun, and discharge it 
again at the flying birds, and it is not even necessary for 
him to mark where they have fallen, or attempt to pick 
them up. All of this requires so little labour and exposure 
to dirt, that a change of clothing is scarcely necessary; 
and, indeed, the suit usually worn by experienced shoot- 
ers, is spotless white. It is not so, however, with the men 
who push you over the fiats; on them all the fatigue rests; 
and it is work of the hardest kind, but the compensation 
is equivalent for all the labour, during so short a period, 
and these men enter into the spirit of the work with the 
utmost cheerfulness, and are exceedingly ambitious to ex- 
cel their competitors, not only in speed, but in the number 
of birds slain — it is therefore all important to their interests 
to serve those shooters who can kill nearly every bird 
which is shot at, as well as be expert in loading. The 
labour of the pusher consists chiefly in directing the boat 
through the reeds by means of a long pole. With this instru- 
ment, (which is usually about twelve to fifteen feet in 
length) he stations himself in the hinder part of the boat, 
and applying the pole to the mud, he drives along at a 
steady, sometimes a rapid rate; his duty is to push through 
the thickest reeds, and keep constantly in motion, and 
whenever a bird rises, to give the signal to the shooter, 
by saying “mark,” and when the bird falls, to mark the 
spot and push up in order to recover the shot bird; and 
it is really astonishing with how much precision this is 
done, which to an inexperienced eye would be lost, and 
perhaps not one-half the birds recovered, when some of 
the best pushers collect on an average ninety-five out of 
every hundred birds killed. The merit of the pushers 
consists chiefly in the three following items, viz. judgment 
as to the ground, strength and nerve to keep the boat in 
motion, and success in recovering the shot birds — accord- 
ing as a man possesses these, so is he esteemed, and a good 
pusher has engagements nearly always a week or ten days 
in advance. 
It is a difficult matter for an inferior shot to secure the 
services of a first rate pusher; they hate to labour in vain, 
although paid as much by a bad as a good shot; yet, as they 
say, “ their duty is hard, and to be pushing hour after 
hour after live birds is dull work,” they work hard, and 
are anxious to show something for their labours, and avoid 
that teasing and low criticism directed against them by 
their more fortunate fellow pushers, whenever they return 
unsuccessful. 
There is no spot in this country where this amusement 
is followed to so great extent as on the Delaware river, 
and it is really an interesting sight, while passing up and 
down the river in steam boats, to let the eye wander over 
the almost endless flats of reeds, which line both sides of 
this river, and see multitudes of boats as far as vision can 
avail, each armed and braving the density of the reeds, 
like a miniature fleet, ready for action, rvhile the sharp 
cracking of the more neighbouring guns are constantly as- 
sailing the ear, and then those more distant, scarcely audi- 
ble, until again sound can no longer be heard, and the 
small volume of smoke, like the puff of a segar, tells the 
work of destruction is going on. 
So rapid is the firing necessary, during the short inter- 
val allotted to this purpose, that the gun oftentimes be- 
comes so heated, as not only to render it insupportable to 
the hand, but dangerous; and it is quite a common occur- 
rence for a shooter to kill, in a couple of hours, as many 
as an hundred to an hundred and fifty birds, and some- 
