308 PHEASANTS 



some very pretty shooting — high birds, 

 and plenty of them, no blanks, and no 

 long, tiresome waits for the beaters. 



For as a general rule reared ducks 

 cannot be relied on, of their own free 

 will, to play the part assigned to them 

 on organized days of shooting ; either 

 they are too tame, in which case the 

 whole affair becomes ridiculous, or else 

 they are too wild, and take themselves 

 off altogether on the first outburst of 

 firing. 



Only the reaches of some slow-flowing, 

 reed-grown river, or a number of small 

 ponds at convenient distances apart, can 

 provide a regular day of duck -shooting 

 under more or less natural conditions. 

 The pen and the hamper do not usually 

 obtrude their presence on the casual 

 observer, who may think that the duck 

 follow the keeper long distances afoot in 

 hopes of food, to turn back disappointed 

 in twos and threes over the line of guns, 

 or that they arrive in answer to the regular 

 call to feed ; but it is at least doubtful 



