138 FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



after swimming up and down for a few seconds, they retrograde 

 to their f )rmer station. The moment to shoot is while they 

 present their sides, and forty or fifty Ducks have often been kill- 

 ed by a small gun. The Black-heads tole the most readily, then 

 the Red-heads, next the Canvass-back, and the Bald-pates rare- 

 ly. This also is the ratio of their approach to the points in 

 flying, although, if the Canvass-back has determined on his 

 direction, few circumstances will change his course. The total 

 absence of cover or precaution against exposure to sight, or 

 a large fire, will not turn these birds aside on such occasions. 

 In flying-shooting, the Bald-pates are a great nuisance, for they 

 are so shy that they not only avoid the points themselves, but 

 by their whistling and confusion of flight at such times alarai 

 others. 



" Simple as it may appear to shoot with success into a solid 

 mass of ducks sitting on the water at forty or fifty yards' dis- 

 tance, yet when you recollect that you are placed nearly level 

 with the 'surface, the object opposed to you, even though com- 

 posed of hundreds of individuals, may be in appearance but a 

 few feet in width. To give, therefore, the best promise of suc- 

 cess, the oldest duckers recommend that the nearest duck should 

 be in perfect relief above tlie sight, whatever the size of the 

 column, to avoid the common result of over-shooting. The 

 correctness of this principle 1 saw illustrated in an instance in 

 which I had toled to within from forty to seventy yards off" the 

 shore, a bed of certainly hundreds of ducks. Twenty yards be- 

 yond the outside birds of the dense mass, were five Black-heads, 

 one of which was alone killed out of the whole number, by a 

 deliberate aim into the middle of the large flock from a rest, by 

 a heavy well-proved Duck gun. 



" Before I leave the subject of sitthig-shoot'mg, I will mention 

 on occurrence that took place in Bush River, a few years since. 

 A man whose house was situated near the bank, on rising early 

 one morning, observed that the river had frozen, except an open 

 space of ten or twelve feet in diameter, about eighty yards from 

 the shore, nearly opposite his house. The spot was full of 



