XVI 

 SMALL GAME SHOOTING. — II 



BESIDES quail — duck, swan, geese, snipe, grouse, 

 pheasants, pigeons, doves, ptarmigan, hares, 

 and rabbits may be shot upon the Pacific Slope. 

 We used to make tremendous bags of duck, but 

 to-day it is impossible to secure more than a few 

 birds in marshes where ten years ago they were 

 slain by the hundred. In certain parts of California 

 and Oregon there are Duck Clubs, the exclusive 

 preserves of millionaires, but public opinion, as I 

 have already said, is bitterly opposed to game pre- 

 serving, and the law imposes but a trifling fine for 

 trespass. In consequence the Club records show 

 a decrease in the numbers of birds shot, and the 

 price of a canvasback in a good restaurant is some 

 eight shillings. 



In the good old days, the ducks flew low, and 

 seldom left the marshes. Four guns properly posted 

 were sufficient to keep them flying up and down the 

 sloughs from dawn to dusk. To-day they fly high, 

 almost out of range, and soon depart for the ocean, 

 returning to their feeding-grounds after dark. The 

 big ducks, like canvasbacks, mallards, and sprigs, 

 fly at a tremendous pace (some say ninety miles an 

 hour), and to tear them down out of the skies taxes 

 the skill of the sportsman and the quality of his 

 gun. As they sail over your right or left shoulder, 

 it is necessary to aim well forward of the tip of the 



