UPLAND SHOOTING. 109 



ducks are fixed on a frame, in various swimming postures, and 

 secured to the bow of the gunner's skifi', projecting before it in 

 such a manner that the weight of the frame sinks the figures to 

 the proper depth ; the skirt' is then dressed with sedge or coarse 

 grass, in an artful manner, as low as the water's edge, and under 

 cover of this, which appears like a party of Ducks swimming 

 by a small island, the gunner tloals down, sometimes to the very 

 skirts of a whole congregated multitude, and pours in a destruc- 

 tive and repeated fire of shot among them. 



" In winter, when detached pieces of ice are occasionally 

 floating in the river, some of the gunners on the Delaware paint 

 their whole skill", or canoe, white ; and laying themselves flat 

 at the bottom, with the hand on the side, silently managing a 

 small paddle, direct it imperceptibly into or near a flock, before 

 the Ducks have distinguished it from a floating mass of ice, and 

 generally do great execution among them. A whole flock has 

 sometimes been thus surprised asleep, with their heads under 

 their wings. 



" On land, another stratagem is sometimes practised with great 

 success. A large, tight hogshead is sunk in the flat marsh or 

 mud, near the place where Ducks are accustomed to feed at 

 low water, and where, otherwise, there is no shelter ; the edges 

 and top are carefully concealed with tufts of long, coarse grass, 

 and reeds or sedges. From within this, the gunner, unseen 

 and unsuspected, watches his collecting prey ; and when a suf- 

 ficient number offers, sweeps them down with great effect. 



" The mode of catching Wild Ducks, as practised in India 

 and China, the island of Ceylon, and some parts of South Ameri- 

 ca, has been often described, and seems, if reliance may be 

 placed on those accounts, only practicable in v.ater of a certain 

 depth. The sportsman, covering his head with a hollow wooden 

 vessel or calabash, pierced with holes to see through, wades 

 into the water, keeping his head only above, and thus dis- 

 guised, moves in among the flock, which takes the appearance to 

 be a mere floating calabash, while suddenly pulling them under 

 by the legs, he fastens them to his girdle, and thus takes as 



