INLAND AND ON THE SHORE 79 



mallard, never shoot it more often than once every 

 four or five nights, or the birds, except under special 

 circumstances, will desert it entirely. 



Let me advise the duck-shooter to make a practice 

 of always carrying a compass. Losing one's bearings 

 in a fog or after dark may prove not merely an incon- 

 venient but a serious matter, as I have found to my 

 own cost in days gone by. 



The duck-shooter can often have excellent sport 

 after daylight has entirely left the sky. From a pit 

 on the shore, when the birds are kept moving by 

 other gunners, one may make fair bags ; but, as 

 in the case of most circumstances connected with 

 wild-fowling, the sportsman must take one day with 

 another, knowing that it depends entirely upon 

 chance whether or no the widgeon will come, or will 

 allow themselves to be called, within range. For 

 three or four nights running he may spend a couple 

 of hours in his pit without ever having the oppor- 

 tunity of pulling a trigger, and the next night he may 

 have a dozen shots. The duck-shooter on the shore 

 must learn to give an exact imitation of the widgeon's 

 call an easy task. There is, by the by, an excellent 

 mallard call, an American invention, which the 

 inland duck-shooter can use with good effect at 

 times. When the night is not very dark, duck, after 



