According to a law of the institution, the competitors fire at this mark with large rifle pieces charged with balls, and rested on triangular stands.  Whoever is so fortunate as to strike the wing of the Popingo first, is entitled to a prize.  This is sometimes a pair of handsome candlesticks, or a silver tea-pot and spoons.  Whoever hits the tail is entitled to another prize not inferior to the last; but he who wounds the body of the bird is complimented with the principal one which weighs at least 65 ounces of silver, and is honoured with the title of the “BIRD KING.”  These prizes are surmounted with the royal cipher and crown.  His Danish majesty opens this ceremony in person, and is entitled to the first shot, and the queen to the second, then they are followed by the other branches of the royal family in succession.  The firing continues until the bird falls.  In returning to the hall, the “Bird King,” accompanied by the procession, first enters the room, and is placed at the head of the table laid out for an entertainment, even in the presence of his majesty.  On this occasion he is understood to be invested with peculiar privileges, such as proposing toasts, directing the order of the feast, &c. and his own health is first given by the judges.  The members pay 100 dollars each.  The festival is honoured by the presence of the royal family, and no person excepting the members, the foreign ministers, and other distinguished persons, who are specially invited, can be admitted.

The practice of shooting at the Popingo or Popinjay, however, is not peculiar to Denmark.  In Scotland a nearly similar amusement is observed, where the head marksman receives the title of “Captain.”  In a future paper, perhaps, I may notice the subject again, as it may prove interesting.

W.H.H.

[2] I imagine this to mean the time of the introduction of the sport, and
    the year when the company was instituted.

* * * * *

IMMENSE TROUT.

(To the Editor of the Mirror.)

In No. 331 of the MIRROR, I observed an article on Trout-fishing in Westmoreland.  The writer states, that the largest trout ever caught in that county weighed four pounds and a half.  This circumstance induces me to send you the annexed account respecting trout in Kent.

The county of Kent affords a vast number of trout-streams, which are nowhere surpassed in England; and fish of extraordinary size and beauty have frequently been caught in them.  Some years ago, at Farningham, (a village through which a noble trout-stream takes its course), stood a flour-mill, the proprietor of which informed my father, that he had often observed an enormous trout in the stream, near the mill-head, and that he would endeavour to catch it, in order to ascertain its real dimensions, as he was very desirous to have a picture done from it.  My father having