[Oka.p.1, 



VAUA.l. 



To tnodern ideas wild-fowling on inland fresh water 

 where the birds are sufficiently accessible, does not seem 

 justifiable ; it may well be left, as at home, to the salt 

 water estuaries where certain species are obtainable in 

 no other way. 



To the writer's mind, the most sporting method of 

 shooting Duck is driving them, whether you merely lie 

 up ill cover at a place wlieie the birds will pass and 

 repass and have them put up by beaters oi-. in jkilH with 

 high and plentiful cover that yet does not prevent pass- 

 age, cruise aliout in a party of several guns disposed in 

 different boats, each helping to keep the game on the 

 move for tlie other ; or the method chiefly dealt with 

 in this book — shoot, like a lord, from a well arranged 

 fixed batt. The hardy sportsman who likes his tram]» 

 through a marsh will scoff at " the arm-chair expert 

 who need'nt trouble to wet his feet," but, for the pure 

 art and enjoyment of shooting, the object of his derision 

 will always be ready to turn the tables and say shooting 

 driven Duck as much surpasses walking them up as 

 riding a bold hunter to hounds over an open grass 

 country excels assisting (on the brougham horse) to 

 chop foxes in a park. 



For Duck driving, India is the country par excel- 

 leuce. You will look in vain for accounts of it in the 

 home standard books. It most resembles Mlht-shoot- 

 wg by day, a chance that the Badminton authority on 

 Wildfowl shooting, Sir Ralph Payne Gallwey, only once 

 had the good fortune to enjoy. " We were shooting 

 snipe " he writes " on a long spit of marshy land that 

 reached far into a large lake. It had been blowing a 

 gale from the south-west for some days, and every 

 duck, widgeon and teal for many square miles of 

 water had collected for shelter on the calm side of 

 the point. They were there in hundreds, but there 

 was nothing to be done except to look at them with 

 longing eyes. We continued shooting snipe with poor 

 success till about four o'clock, and then took another 

 look at the duck before turning homewards ; in the 

 hope of getting a shot at one or two which had been 

 swimming near the shore in the morning. On reaching 

 the shore it became apparent that the wind, which was 

 still blowing a full gale, had veered to the north-eat. 

 We knew that this change would unsettle the fowl, as 

 they were now on a rough shore and not, as before, in 

 snug shelter, and the calculation soon proved correct. 

 That evening every bird passed within fair shot over- 

 head, though at a great speed, making for the other 



