52 FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
against which they strike their enormous feet and wings most 
furiously, great advantage is gained in distance. They should 
be allowed on all occasions to turn the side, for a breast shot 
rarely succeeds in entering. 
“ When two feeding coves are separated by a single point, by 
disturbing the Swans on either occasionally, they will pass and 
repass very closely to the projection of land, and usually taking 
as they do the straight line, each gunner, to prevent disputes, 
indicates the bird he will shoot at. 
“ In winter, boats covered with pieces of ice, the sportsmen 
being dressed in white, are paddled or allowed to float during 
the night into the midst of a flock, and they have oftentimes 
been killed by being knocked on the head and neck by a pole. 
There is, however, much danger in this mode, as others may be 
engaged in like manner, and shooting at a short distance, the 
persons might not be readily distinguished from the Swans. 
These birds seem well aware of the range of a gun, and I have 
followed them in a skiff for miles, driving a body of several 
hundreds before me, without the possibility of getting quite 
within shooting distance. 
“ When more than one person is shooting, it is usual for each 
to select a particular Swan, and if there be not enough for all, 
two will take a particularly good bird, and, if it be killed, will 
decide its possession afterward, by some play of chance. Few 
are willing to take the first bird, even though their position of 
last in the direction of flight would compel them according to 
usage to do so, not only from the difficulty and uselessness of 
killing the old ones, but because there is much less chance of a 
stray shot from" a neighbor’s gun assisting in the destruction. 
“In the autumn of 1829,the writer, with another person was 
on Abbey Island, where seven Swans were approaching the 
point in one line, and three others at a short distance behind 
them. The small group appeared exceedingly anxious to pass 
the larger, and as they doubled the point at about sixty yards’ 
distance, the three formed with the second bird of the larger 
flock a square of less than three feet. At this moment both 
