158 IMIllAN DUCKS 



often amuse tliemselves witli various jaljliorings, swim about, 

 approach eacii other, move tlieir heads liackwards and forwards, 

 ' duck ' in tlie water, throwing il up over their backs, shoot along its 

 surface, half flying, half running, and in short are quite playful when 

 in good humour. On being sui'prised or alarmed when on shore, or 

 on water, they spring up at once with a bound, and rise obliquely 

 to a consideralile height, and fly off with speed, their hard-(juilled 

 wings whistling against tiie air. ^^'llen in full flight, their velocity 

 is great, being probalily 100 miles an hour. Like other ducks, they 

 imjiel themselves by quickly repeated flaps without sailings or 

 undulations." 



Probab]\' some of us will not af,'ree with what Hume says 

 regarding the comparative merits of a punt-gun when he declares 

 that " there is more skill, knowledge, and endurance brought into 

 plaj', and therefore more sport, in one day's big shooting, than in a 

 week of even such .... small-bore shooting as Captain Butler 

 describes." I have had a little experience of both, and must most 

 emphatically dissent, of course, a punt-gun, especially one of the 

 latest swivel-action, breech-loading, non-recoil guns, will enable a 

 sportsman to bring birds to bag that he conld not otherwise get ; 

 but it is not that he uses more skill in approaching, but that 

 there is not the need to get so close. He does not require a more 

 careful aim, for he nearly always takes his shot into the brown as 

 the birds lie on the water. Nor does he require more endurance. 

 To this most people will agree who have stood behind some '200 

 shots fired from a r2-bore carrying a really heavy charge. Certainly 

 getting some one to push you along in a punt cannot be said to 

 require more work than does the tramping after your birds on foot. 



Mallard especially are strong flyers, and I would personally 

 always feel more satisfaction on hearing the thud, thud, of a brace 

 of birds on the ground in answer to the two barrels of my 1'2-bore 

 than I would in seeing five, or even ten times that number, left on 

 the water as the result of a lucky shot from a punt-gun. 



In shooting Wild Duck as they rise before one, it is as well 

 to loose off one's piece as soon as possible, for, as Macgillivray 

 says : — 



" They rise straight up in the air whether flushed from land or 

 water, and whilst thus rising offer wiiat is perhaps the easiest shot, 

 and at the same time they are not increasing their distance." 



