WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 



147 



to notice the dog or the first to take the lead in the 

 general movement towards the shore, — all the other 

 ducks apparently following, although they may be 

 equally under the magic influence. 



" This plan of killing ducks, though practised by all 

 the gentry as well as pot-hunters who frequent the 

 bay-shore, is not altogether recognised as a sportsman- 

 like way of bagging game, and is forbidden on some 

 of the grounds in possession of the clubs that meet 

 during the shooting season at different points in the 

 bay. Against the utility of this regulation we will not 

 venture an argument. The gentlemen composing 

 these associations no doubt have good reasons for 

 their restriction. We must confess, however, that we 

 see no impropriety nor anything unsportsmanlike in 

 thus decoying this wary fowl within reach of our guns, 

 more particularly in positions where all other modes 

 of getting at them would surely fail ; but, on the con- 

 trary, we have always found a great deal in the sport 

 to admire, as it is not unfrequently attended with a 

 high degree of pleasurable excitement, while witness- 

 ing the playful antics of the dog operating so strangely 

 upon his bewildered and silly victims that so soon pay 

 the forfeit of their idle curiosity in death. And, more- 

 over, if we desired to act the part of a sage, we might 

 also draw a pretty moral from the incident, in demon- 

 strating to our brother sportsmen that a foolish and 

 idle curiosity even in the brute creation often results 

 in disastrous consequences to the parties concerned. 



"Along some shores on the Gunpowder and Bush 

 Rivers, exclusively devoted by their proprietors to tol- 



