CANVAS-BACK. 303 



Captain Hawker very justly remarks: — "Never look up while 

 loading ; you can do no good by it, and you will only put yourself 

 in a flurry, and perhaps break your ramrod. If your man, (assist- 

 ant,) knowing you have no gun loaded, says, ' Look out, sir !' why 

 — I had almost said — knock him down." 



TO SHOOT DUCKS SITTING. 



Having learned the art of shooting flying, the tyro may feel 

 disposed to treat with contempt any endeavor on our part to teach 

 him so simple a thing as to shoot wild fowl while sitting on the 

 water, within, we will say, fifty or a hundred yards of our ambush. 

 Nevertheless, we can assure him that it is not such an easy matter 

 as he supposes, and he will upon trial soon find to his satisfaction 

 what we say to be true ; and, without paying proper regard to our 

 instructions on this point, he will often have the mortification of 

 seeing the ducks escape from his fire, .when he ought by due 

 management to have killed at least a dozen or more. It seems to 

 be a vei-y simple thing to point the gun in a direct range of a flock 

 of ducks, and cut a complete lane, as it were, through their ranks 

 with a heavy charge of powder and shot ; but such, unfortunately 

 for the tyro, is not the case. The young sportsman generally 

 commits one of two errors in shooting wild fowl ; that is, he either 

 undershoots or overshoots the game, according to the distance they 

 are from him. If within thirty, forty, or fifty, or even seventy 

 yards, the shot almost invariably passes over the ducks ; if beyond 

 this distance, the load most frequently falls far short of the in- 

 tended mark. 



When the shot is first impelled from the mouth of a large duck- 

 gun held on a level, it has an upward tendency from a point-blank 

 range, which it preserves for an indefinite distance, according to 

 the quantity of powder used and the force with which the weapon 

 shoots. When it has reached a certain distance it begins to lose 

 the upward impetus, and, therefore, must fall sooner or later 

 before losing entirely its projectile force. Any one can easily 

 ascertain this fact by trying the experiment on the water, if not 



