134 ON THE WING. 



WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 



Wild Ducks. 



WILD-DUCK shooting, embracing as it usually 

 does, all kinds of wild-fowl shooting, is a very 

 different sport from brush-shooting. It is attended 

 with so many hardships and uncertainties that, unless 

 the sportsman lives near the sea or some inland lake 

 where the wild-fowl resort, it will hardly pay for him 

 to leave the woods and fields, and seek water-fowl in- 

 stead of his usual inland game. The time for shoot- 

 ing wild duck and other water-fowl is also the season 

 when woodcock, quail, and partridge are plenty, as it 

 is, in fact, the harvest season for all game-birds. Wild- 

 fowl shooting is at best a tedious, wearisome business, 

 and whoever puts on the harness to follow it must 

 make up his mind for all kinds of disagreeable work. 

 He will often suffer from cold winds, storms, and wet 

 feet, and sometimes he will go home empty-handed. 



The best season for shooting wild ducks is the fall, 

 beginning with the first of October, and continuing 

 until December, often, indeed, much later into the win- 

 ter. If you live near a fresh pond or lake, you should 

 prepare a shooting-blind or brush house, and visit it 

 whenever you can, particularly on windy mornings 

 and evenings. You would find it convenient to have 



