142 FK>\NK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



I have here taken the liberty of extracting a single page from 

 my friend Mr. Porter's edition of Hawker's work on shooting — 

 an edition, which is rather a ne\y work than what it modestly 

 professes to he, and from which I should have borrowed more 

 laro-ely, had not I been prevented from so doing by the appre- 

 hension of, in the least degree, interfering wiih its merited suc- 

 cess. I eagerly take this occasion of recommending it to all my 

 readers as a work of sure authority, especially on all that re- 

 lates to gunnery, and to Western sport. 



" The editor of the American edition of Colonel Hawker's 

 work is greatly indebted to Henry Dwight Chapin, Esq., of 

 Baltimore, for the annexed original communication on the sub- 

 ject of Canvass-back Duck shooting. Mr. C. is known through- 

 out the country as a scientific and enthusiastic sportsman of 

 twenty years' standing. 



" The seas(m for shooting this much esteemed bird commences 

 with its arrival at the head waters of the Chesapeake Bay, on 

 or about the first of November, and continues in perfection for 

 two months, and longer, if the severity of the weather does not 

 close with ice its favorite haunts. Indeed thousands are killed 

 during the months of January, February, and March, lower 

 down the bay, 1 ut their flavor is not so delicate after they have 

 been driven by the ice from their accustomed feeding grounds, 

 which abound with the water celery, a plant whose bulbous root 

 imparts the most delicious flavor to all the water fowl that feeu 

 upon it. 



" The usual mode of shooting them by sportsmen is upon the 

 wing, as they pass a point, or a narrow neck of land, which 

 they often do in flying from one feeding gfound to another. 

 The best guns used are of large calibre, from No. 12 to No. 7 

 guage, and the shot of the size B or BB. The powder coarse- 

 grained, to obviate the recoil that necessarily ensues if fine- 

 grained should be used. 



" But there is a class of men, poachers, that shoot for market, 

 who make the greatest havoc with this game. They silently in 

 the night-time paddle or scull small boats into the very midst 



