XJrLAND SHOOTING. 
207 
round you, or fly past you, just out of gunshot, tempting you all 
the time with hopes that will still prove false, unless you have 
some such device as Eley’s cartridges, by which to turn the 
shrewdness of this cunning little schemer to its own destruc¬ 
tion. 
In Rhode Island, where alone the sport is now pursued sys¬ 
tematically, the mode adopted is this,—the shooter, accompa¬ 
nied by a skilful driver, on whom, by the way, the whole onus 
of the business rests, and to whom all the merit of success, if 
attained, is attributable, is mounted in what is termed in New 
England a chaise , that is to say, an old-fashioned gig with a top. 
In this convenience, he kneels down, with his left leg out of the 
carriage, and his foot firmly planted on the step, holding his 
gun ready to shoot at an instant’s notice. The driver, perceiv¬ 
ing the birds, as they are running and feeding on the open sur¬ 
face, selects one, according to his judgment, and drives round it 
rapidly in concentric circles, until he gets within gunshot of it, 
and perceives by its motions that it will not permit a nearer ap¬ 
proach. He then makes a short half turn from it, pulling the 
horse short up, at the same instant; and at that very same in¬ 
stant, for the Sandpiper rises invariably at the moment in which 
the chaise stops, the shooter steps out lightly to the ground, and 
kills his bird, before it has got well upon the wing. In the 
timing of all this various work, on the part of the driver and the 
gunner, there is a good deal of skill requisite, and, of course, a 
good deal of excitement. But the real sport, and the real skill, 
are both on the part of the driver, whose duty it is to deliver 
his marksman as nearly as possible to the game, yet never to 
ran the thing so close, as to allow the Sandpiper to take wing 
before he has pulled up. The difference in the judgment and 
skill of drivers is immense ; and there is one gentleman in New 
York, a well-known, and old friend of the public, who is said to 
be so infinitely superior to all others, that the gun in his chaise, 
even if it be handled by the inferior shot, is sure to come off 
the winner. It is not unusual, I am told, to bag from twenty 
to twenty-five couple of these delicious birds in a day’s sport, 
VOL. i. 16 
