284 THE SHOOTING-TUB. 



and tickle the fancy of the ducklings, that they gradually 

 swim towards him, occasionally so near, it is said, as actually 

 to seize hold of his tail with their hills ; but they usually 

 pay dear for their temerity, for the wily fellow seizes his 

 opportunity, and pounces on one or other of them. 

 To this device of the fox," M. Bedoire continues, " I 

 myself have been an eye-witness ; and it was only last 

 autumn that my bailiff shot one of these animals in the very 

 act of beguiling young ducks in the manner described." 

 Another plan of circumventing ducks and, late in 

 the autumn, one perhaps not altogether unknown ir 

 England, is thus described by M. Gobel, an ardent 

 sportsman, and a good shot. "In the middle of the 

 lake,* and in a thick cluster of reeds," he says, " I 

 sank a capacious tub to within a few inches of the 

 surface of the water, and secured it by stakes. After the 

 tab had been bailed out, I seated myself on a stool at the 

 bottom of it, provided with severalguns. My man theii 

 rowed to and fro in the lake to disturb the fowl, and the 

 better to effect this object was proA'ided with a pistol which 

 he discharged occasionally. The fowl, having no sus- 

 picion, flew round and about me in every direction, so that 

 it Avas impossible for me to load quickly enough to give 

 them all a salvo. But although I fired a number of shots 

 during the autumn, my success was not commensurate. 

 This was principally attributable to my view being very 

 greatly obstructed l)y the reeds, which rose fully two feet 

 a1)0ve my head, and to the rapid flight of the fowl, so that 

 I seldom obtained other than snap shots, of which it is 

 probable that, on the average, not more than one in five 

 took effect. But during the present season," he goes on 



* Brosjun, in South Wermlaml, a great resort for wild fowl, where I 

 myself have shot on several occasions, once in company with two friends, 

 when, in the course of tin-ee to four hours, we bagged vijnvanls of twenty 

 couple of ^Mallard alone. . ' 



