48o DUCK SHOOTING. 



the fowl in dispute in order to determine — according to 

 the club rule — on which side it had been shot. 



Occasionally, when ducks were discovered bedded 

 close to the shore, toling was practiced. It could be 

 done only at such times. It is thus described to me by 

 my friend, Mr. Wm. Trotter : 



"The darky came up and told us that he had found 

 quite a bed of birds sitting near the shore, and that he 

 thought we could get a tole on them. Two of us went 

 with him, and after getting as near the shore as we 

 could, crept up on our hands and knees until we were 

 close to it. We could see a bed of two or three hun- 

 dred ducks, blackheads, redheads and widgeons, feed- 

 ing about a hundred yards off the shore. The darky 

 had with him a little white poodle dog, that followed 

 close at his heels, and as we came along we had filled 

 the pockets of our shooting-coats with small sticks. 

 After we had crept up close to the shore, the darky 

 threw a stick off to one side, on the beach, and the dog 

 raced after it, and took it up in his mouth and shook it 

 and played with it for a moment or two, and then stood 

 still and looked back toward us, and the darky threw 

 another stick up the beach, and the dog raced up along 

 to it, and played with that for a little while, when his 

 owner threw a third stick. This was kept up for some 

 little time, the dog running backward and forward 

 alonof the beach. The blackheads almost at once no- 

 ticed the dog, and began to swim toward shore to see 

 what it was. The redheads also seemed interested, and 

 kept with the blackheads, and the remaining ducks fol- 



