DIFIEEENT SPECIES OF DUCKS. 77 



pally black duck, at night, with his own gun, in one small 

 water-hole close to the coast. This is the only kind of 

 shooting in the colony for which a man really requires 

 water-boots. As the birds generally feed in shallow 

 water, he fetches the dead ones out himself, and he may 

 often have to sit for hours on a tussock of rushes, up to 

 his knees in water. Cording's Indian-rubber water- 

 proofs are the best I ever used for this work ; they are 

 warm, perfectly water-tight, never want dressing, and, 

 what is best of all, never get hard, and are always easy 

 to pull on and off. They are certainly too heavy for 

 walking much in, but for flight-shooting, boat-fishing, or 

 any other work where the wearer is not constantly in 

 motion, I will back them against any boots in the world. 

 The American gutta-percha overalls are not worth any- 

 thing for work. At all other times except flight-shooting, 

 the best dress for the Australian duck-shooter is canvas 

 or flannel trowsers and low half-boots. The climate is 

 so fine here, that a man may wade in the swamps with 

 impunity at all seasons of the year, and the best clothes 

 the shooter can wear are those which dry the quickest. 



The flight-shooter usually ties a black ribbon round, 

 or sticks a small lump of mud on, the end of the barrel 

 of his gun, to guide his eye well on the object. My 

 plan was better, both for flight and opossum shooting. 

 Cut a forked piece of tea-tree, the forks about six inches 

 long, and tie it round the end of your barrel, the muzzle 

 protruding between the two forks, which stick up one on 

 each side, like a pair of horns. I learnt this trick of an 



