UPLAND SHOOTING. 301 



I was waiting foi* three or four in line, the wind blowing direct 

 from me to them, vvitliout perceiving by any signs their con- 

 sciousness of an enemy's vicinity.* 



" When the weiither is very hard, and Ducks are driven to 

 the springy drains, a simple way of getting fair shots, but seldom 

 practised, is, to make your man keep close to the drain, and 

 take your own place fifteen yards from it, and abput forty in 

 advance of him. The Ducks will then rise nearly opposite to 

 you. To walk along the drain is not a very good plan, as they 

 will generally rise either out of distance or very long shots : 

 and, if you keep a little way off, they may not rise at all.t 

 When the loch is low, the sportsman may often get a capital 

 sh(tt at Ducks, the first warni sunny days in March, f as they 

 collect on the grassy places at the margin to feed upon the 

 insects brought into life by the genial heat. 



" But to leturn to our wild-fowl shooter, whom we left glass 

 in hand looking out for divers. He sees a couple plying their 

 vocation fifteen or twenty yards from the shore, about half a 

 quarter of a mile from where he stands. He selects his vantage 



* '■ Perhaps the sportsman may ask what it signifies whether wild-fowl are 

 aware of your approach by hearing or winding? My answer is, that although 

 it is of little consequence when crawling upon Ducks, yet when lying concealed, 

 expecting them to pitch, it is a considerable advantage to know that you will 

 not be detected by their sense of smell ; otherwise the best refuge for a shot 

 must often be abandoned for a much worse." 



tTiiis plan will be found to answer admirably in this country, not when the 

 weather is very hard, at which times the drains and small streams are frozen 

 hard, but at all seasons when wild-fowl of any kind are marked down into any 

 brook, stream or water-course whatever. If the stream be very tortuous, the 

 shooter should walk parallel to it, just far enough distant not to strike any of its 

 courses, but keeping as nearly as possible a perfectly direct course. The beater 

 should follow every curve accurately. I have have had sport thus with Wood- 

 duck, in many districts of the United States ; and once — the best day's inland 

 fowl-shooting, I ever had — killed sixteen young birds, and two fine Drakes in a 

 single morning. 



t For INIarch we must substitute, as regards American shooting, the corres- 

 ponding season, according to the latitude. The period he means is the first 

 breaking up of winter, and the commencement of mild weather. 



