NIGHT SHOOTING. 607 



States should forbid their use, for the reason that they 

 interfere with the feeding of the fowl, and tend to 

 render them suspicious even of the waters over which 

 they fly. 



NIGHT SHOOTING. 



Fifteen or twenty years ago night shooting, often 

 with "big guns," was commonly practiced on many of 

 the best ducking grounds in the Chesapeake Bay. The 

 gunner, usually with a reflecting headlight in the bow 

 of the skiff, paddled quietly up to the great rafts of 

 fowl resting on the water, and shot into them with huge 

 guns, ten or twelve feet long, and carrying a pound or 

 more of shot. The use of such guns was forbidden by 

 law, but it was exceedingly difficult to procure evidence 

 against the men who used them. The public sentiment 

 of the community was on the side of the law-breakers, 

 and people generally were willing to give them warn- 

 ing of the approach of law officers. In 1883, some of 

 the ducking clubs on the Chesapeake Bay made special 

 efforts to put an end to this shooting, and several of 

 the big guns were captured and their owners were 

 arrested. The local gunning population discovered 

 at last that the members of the clubs were in earnest, 

 and a treaty was entered into by which the law-break- 

 ers agreed, if they were not prosecuted, to give up their 

 big guns and the practice of night shooting. Since 



