

WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 151: 



first; but the canvas-backs soon entirely forsook the 

 shoals where these nets were placed, and did not return 

 to them again during the same season. But what 

 brought this method more particularly into disrepute, 

 even among pot-hunters, was the circumstance of the 

 ducks secured in this way being so far inferior to those 

 which were shot, owing to their being drowned and 

 remaining so long a time under the water, as the plac- 

 ing of the nets occupied so much time and labor that 

 it would not pay to examine them oftener than once in 

 ' twenty-four or forty-eight hours ; and many of the 

 ducks, consequently, were* under the water during a 

 greater portion of this time. The flesh, under these 

 disadvantages, became watery and insipid, and the 

 ducks, moreover, were very hard to keep, except in 

 excessively cold weather, on account of their bodies 

 absorbing so much water. The whole system of gill- 

 ing ducks is now entirely abandoned, and we only 

 mention it as one of the things that have appeared 

 and passed away. This method, however, of taking 

 ducks is not altogether new, as a somewhat similar 

 plan is resorted to on the coast of France for taking 

 the scoter-duck, which little fowl resorts in consider- 

 able numbers to the sea-coast for the purpose of feed- 

 ing on the shell-fish that there abound. The fisher- 

 men, or those engaged in taking wild fowl, spread their 

 nets at low tide on the flats where these shell-fish are 

 found, being supported two or more feet from the 

 ground, so that the ducks, feeding in with the tide and 

 diving after food, become entangled, as in the case of 

 the canvas-backs, in the meshes of the net. 



