190 DUCKS. 



found, flappers are easily killed, as they attain their 

 full growth before their wings are fledged ; and for 

 this reason, the sport is often more like hunting 

 water rats than shooting birds. 



If you leave the brood, after having disturbed 

 them, the old bird will remove them to another place 

 long before the following day. 



When the flappers take wing they assume the 

 name of wild ducks. About the month of August 

 they repair to the corn fields, till disturbed by the 

 harvest people. They then frequent the rivers pretty 

 early in the evening, and show excellent sport to any 

 one, who has patience to wait for them. Our sporting 

 writers in general have given no further directions 

 for duck shooting than to walk quietly up a brook, 

 and shoot them as they rise. In doing this, if you 

 have only a single gun, and should spring a bird at 

 an uncertain distance, halloo out before you shoot, as 

 there may be others under a bank, and much closer 

 to you, that would spring on the discharge of your 

 gun. 



You need not be at a loss to know a wild duck. 

 The claws in the wild species are black. 



Some sportsmen recommend common land spaniels 

 for duck-shooting, and nothing is more common than 

 to see, in a picture, a smart looking Tyro attacking 

 a flock of wild fowl with two open-mouthed dogs of 

 this description. This is an art we have yet to 

 learn ; and, I conceive, the best recipe to acquire it 

 would be, first to tie the ducks by their legs, taking 



