10 DUCKING DAYS 



that have recently been shot at and hunted somewhere, 

 for they are already swimming away, looking back con- 

 tinuously over their shoulders at the creeping float. To 

 float those birds successfully to within anything like cer- 

 tain range before they jump means one shall have to 

 employ much of the craft coming within the province of 

 the sculler's art. That the scientific sculling of wildfowl 

 is an art, dear reader rest assured. A very fascinating 

 art indeed, mastery in which is not to be attained within 

 a season's scope, nor yet in two. 



The birds are redheads, and wild at that, M^hich means 

 the slightest slip will prove fatal tO' success. It wdll not 

 do to bear down on them too hard. Let them gain a 

 little, perhaps as is often the case their nervousness will 

 abate thereby somewhat. The nose of the float must be 

 kept dead on, and not a shadow of rocking accompany 

 its progress, nor the faintest sound issue from the scull 

 hole where the paddle handle bears upon its lubricant of 

 lat porkrind. 



All this was done and more and at the right moment 

 a little extra elbow grease applied to the paddle handle 

 cut the distance down to 60 yards, which proved the limit 

 of the birds' endurance, when they lifted. A long shot 

 truly, but a float gun should be well choked and mine 

 being so the rear bird splashes back with a broken mng, 

 while no result seems to follow the second shot. But 

 hold! One of the departing trio suddenly lets go all 

 holds and with quivering pinions drops limply into the 



