WILDFOWL SHOOTING. 



If it ])<: friift, as has often been said, that the enjoy- 

 ment taken in any sj>ort is i)ro|)ortif>nerl to its riiffi'iil 

 ties anrl hardshijjs, then we rriay readily corni^reh'-ri'l 

 why wihifowl sJiootinj^ is popular. To be sure, thrre 

 are otlier reas^jns; the rewards arc W)metimcs j^reat, 

 and thr^nj^h no descriptirm of shr^Ain^ is mr^re uncer- 

 tain than this, yet as man is a hopeful creature, and usu- 

 ally believes that he will be ff^rtunatc, even ihoujdi all 

 his fellows are unlucky, men continue to ^o duck shoot- 

 ing, even though the measure of success with which 

 they are usually rewarded may be very meaj^re. ()nt 

 gor>d day, or one successful exj^edition, will lonj^ re- 

 main fresh in the duck shooter's memory and will lure 

 him on to make trip after trip, year after year, in the 

 confident hope that s^^me time this frood fortune will 

 a^me tr> him aj^ain. In the faith that his success will 

 rapeat itself, he ^]n(\]y enrlures a>ld, hun^^er, wet, and 

 even danger, over and over a^ain. 



As the finest weather for duck shootin/^ is what is 

 usually denominated foul weather — that is windy, 

 dr^udy, or rainy, r^ften with snow srjualls and a tem- 

 I^erature so low that ice forms — the gunner must 

 always f^o prepared to suffer s<^;me flisa^mfort. If his 

 hhooting is done from a boat and in a jjlace where tlie 



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