WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 341 



land-locked sheets of water or lagoons, lying along the 

 greater part of the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, 

 from Florida so far north as to the eastern extremity of 

 Long Island, between an outer beach or sea-bank of sand 

 or shingle, thrown up by the action of the surf and under- 

 tow, and the main land, is for the most part of one char- 

 acter. 



It is prosecuted either from boats, concealed in nooks 

 cut out of the sedgy points or islands of sedge and hassock, 

 with which these waters abound, and partially covered 

 with reeds, sea-weed, salt meadow hay, and other trash ; 

 or from what are technically called batteries, narrow, 

 shallow, coffin-like boxes of wood, just large enough to 

 contain one person lying flat on his back, provided with a 

 margin of boards nearly horizontal, but slightly inclined 

 upward at the outer edge like the brim of a soup-plate, 

 which, resting on the surface of the water, support the box 



