Handbook of field and general ornithology : a manual of the structure and classification of birds / with instructions for collecting and preserving specimens.

  • Elliott Coues
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook of field and general ornithology : a manual of the structure and classification of birds / with instructions for collecting and preserving specimens. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    deal with a hawk or other large bird with reasonable prospects of success j if in only one barrel, the other being more heavily charged, you are crippled to the extent of exactly one-half of your resources for ordinary shooting. Whereas, with the breech-loader you will habitually use mustard-seed in both barrels, and yet can slip in a different shell in time to seize most opportunities requiring large shot. This consideration alone should decide the case. Moreover, the time spent in the field in loading an ordinary gun is no small item; while cartridges may be charged in your leisure at home. This should become the natural occupation of your spare moments. No time is really gained ; you simply change to advantage the time consumed. Metal shells, charged with loose ammunition, and susceptible of being reloaded many times, may be used instead of any special fixed ammunition which, once exhausted in a distant place (and circumstances may upset the best calculations on that score), leaves the gun useless. On charging the shells, mark the number of the shot used on the outside wad; or better, use coloured wads—say plain white for dust shot, and red, blue, and green for certain other sizes. If going far away; take as many shells as you think can possibly be wanted—and a few more. Experience, however, will soon teach you to prefer paper cartridges for breech-loaders. They may of course be loaded according to circumstances, with the same facility as metal shells, and even reloaded if desired. It is a good deal of trouble to take care of metal shells, to prevent loss, keep them clean, and avoid bending or indenting ; while there is often a practical difficulty in recapping —at least with the common styles that take a special primer. Those fitted with a screw top holding a nipple for ordinary caps are expensive. Paper cartridges come already capped, so that this bother is avoided, and it is not ordinarily worth while to reload them. They are made of different colours, distinguishing various sizes of shot used without employing the coloured wads otherwise required. They may be taken into the field empty and loaded on occasion to suit; but it is better to pay a trifle extra to have them loaded at the shop. In such case, about four-fifths of the stock should contain mustard-seed, nearly all the rest about No. 7, a very few being reserved for about No. 4. Cost of ammunition is hardly appreciably increased; its weight is put in the most conveniently portable shape; the whole apparatus for carrying it loose and for loading the shells is dispensed with; much time is saved, the entire drudgery (excepting gun-cleaning) of collecting being avoided. I was prepared in this way during the summer of 1873 for the heaviest work I ever succeeded in accomplishing dur- ing the same length of time. In June, when birds were plentiful, I easily averaged fifteen skins a day, and occasionally made twice
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