PREFACE. 



HIS VOLUME DEALS WITH 

 duck shooting, past as well as 

 present, and with the different 

 ways in tvJiich the sport has been 

 and is practiced. It tells of an 

 abundance of fowl in the land^ 

 not to be seen to-day, nor perhaps ever again. It 

 contains accoiuits of shooting, often by unwise 

 methods, ofte?i to unnecessary excess; of shooting 

 which has reduced the multitudes of our fowl from what 

 they were to what they are. Such accounts may well 

 serve as warnings to us, teaching us noiv the exercise of 

 a moderation zve were too thoughtless to deem necessary 

 in the old days. 



Since the several methods of duck shooting necessarily 

 grade into one another, there will often be in one ac- 

 count repetition of what has been said in another. This 

 seems inevitable, hoiuever, if a clear idea is to be given 

 of each variety of the sport. 



