132 SHOOTrNG. 



as her fears and iiiclmations direct her ; and she is known in this 

 country to use the same Avily stratagems to niislead the sportsman 

 and his dog as those akeady noticed respecting the partridge. _ 



Like most of the duck tribes, the mallards, in vast quantities, 

 leave the north at the end of autumn, and, migrating southward, 

 arrive in the beginning of winter in large flocks, and spread them- 

 selves over all the loughs and marshy wastes in Great Britaiii. 

 They pair in the spring, when the greatest part of them again 

 retui-n to the north to breed, during the summer months of com- 

 paratively warm weather and long days. A few straggling^ birds 

 remain every season with us, and breed, rearing their young in o\ir 

 boggy grounds, which remain with us throughout the year. 



It is somewhat curious and out of the usual course of nature, 

 that these ^vild ducks have been known to build their nests on 

 trees, even to the height of twenty-five feet from the ground. 

 There are several well-attested instances of this in the annals of 

 British wild-duck sporting. 



Wild-duck shooting is one of those sports which recjuires to be 

 well timed. One cannot go out whenever fancy may prompt and 

 pursue the amusement with any hope of success. These bii-ds are 

 very shy, and must be plied and dodged about to gain upon them, 

 so as to bring the shot witliin range of them. They have fixed 

 times of feeding and visiting certain locaHties ; and the only way to 

 effect any destruction among them, is to watch their movements,! 

 and conceal yourself from observation. You may thus often inter-! 

 cept their flight when congregated in considerable nmnbers, and , 

 bring down several at a shot. They are sometunes very easily: 

 killed, and sometimes ahnost impervious to the lead pellets. All 

 depends upon the part of the body hit. Regular wild-duck shooters ' 

 are often very successful in moonlight nights. The bii-ds are theui 

 less shy and suspicious. We have ourselves often been very lucky 

 under these lunar auspices. 



With respect to wild-duck shooting in boats along the sea-shore, 

 in rather stormy weather, we have little to say grounded on our own 

 experience. The truth is, we have several times been rather vahant 

 in this kuid of sport, but we never got a quarter of a mile from the 

 shore till our stomachs rebelled, and we were literally dead for the 

 time being. All the wild-ducks in Christendom could not have 

 raised us pn our legs. To persons who are proof against tliis 

 insidious sickness, we have no doubt such sport abounds with the 

 exciting and pleasurable to a reasonable extent ; but we say to all 

 who are not possessed of such singularly constituted stomachs, to 

 eschew the sport, and keep on terra firma. 



There are few places near the shores of Great Britain where wild- 

 duck shooting cannot be had. Some localities are certainly more 

 famous than others ; but there is an abundance for all sportsmen 

 during the season : and it is an interesting sport on this account, 

 that there are fev/er restrictions upon its exercise than upon almost 

 any other kind of game. Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshii'e, Martin 



