126 WILD DUCK SHOOTING ON PRESERVES 



A few days ago I witnessed a shoot on a preserve not 

 far from New York where wild ducks are artificially 

 reared. There were six guns in the party and several of 

 them undoubtedly were good shots, but they made many 

 misses since the ducks were very wild and flew high and 

 fast as they came to the guns over the tops of the trees, 

 behind which they were stationed. I endeavored to keep 

 an account of the number of shots fired in order to ascer- 

 tain how many cartridges were used for each duck 

 bagged. It was evident at the outset that from five to 

 ten shots were being fired for each duck killed, but the 

 shooting became very rapid at times and it was impossi- 

 ble to do more than to roughly estimate the proportion 

 of shots and ducks. During the shooting about sixty- 

 five mallards were bagged, and I am quite sure at least 

 six hundred, and probably more, shots were fired. 



Although I do not especially care for this kind of shoot- 

 ing, or, in fact, for any kind of shooting from ambush, 

 since I much prefer to ramble about with dogs, and I care 

 nothing for big bags, I must admit that the shooting at 

 the mallards, which I observed, was as difficult as any 

 shooting I had ever had or seen on a duck pass, and far 

 more difficult than shooting over dogs is, excepting, pos- 

 sibly, the shooting in heavy cover. 



Comparing the shooting at the hand-reared fowl with 

 the shooting of wild bred ducks over decoys one is 

 forced to admit that the last named seems like a child's 

 play. It is by far the easier shooting. 



The ducks were in fine condition and on previous days 

 I was informed the bags were somewhat larger. Several 

 hundred^ ducks were shot during the week and some of 

 them were sent to market, very properly. Since every 



