SELF-DENIAL NEEDED. 603 



ken oyster shells. We also give the geese the best corn 

 we can buy, and every once in a while feed them with 

 grass. As the birds can now readily obtain sand and 

 fragments of oyster shells, they supply their wants with 

 these substances, and are thus much less likely to take 

 in any considerable quantity of the shot which may 

 still remain within the limits of the pen. It is, of course, 

 evident that to keep these captive birds in a state of 

 health they should be surrounded as nearly as possible 

 by natural conditions." 



It would appear that the ducks, in their feeding 

 through the borders of the marsh and in the mud in 

 which they dabble, often come upon the particles of 

 shot so thickly scattered over the shooting ground 

 and take them into the alimentary canal, whence 

 they pass down into the gizzard. Until they reach the 

 mill in which the wildfowl grinds his food, these pel- 

 lets do the bird no harm, but when reduced to powder 

 and acted on by acids they become a violent poison. 



SELF-DENIAL NEEDED. 



It must be obvious to any one who will take an un- 

 prejudiced view of the subject that the settling up of a 

 large portion of the North American continent has de- 

 prived our wildfowl of much of their ancient breeding 

 ground. It must also be evident that the great and 

 constantly increasing number of gunners scattered 



