CHAPTER III 



PRESERVING AND LURING THE DUCK 



THE reason why owners of shootings are now giving 

 so much attention to the rearing of duck is be- 

 cause as a sporting bird the mallard takes very 

 high rank indeed; coming over the guns in right 

 style, he is every whit as good as the pheasant. True, 

 unless the shoot be a very large one, and a very well 

 watered one to boot, such a thing as a day's duck- 

 shooting is quite unattainable. But, on the other 

 hand, in the case of a moderate-sized shoot whereon 

 there exist, or whereon there are made, even only a 

 couple of ponds, a corresponding number of delight- 

 ful diversions may be afforded, whether the main 

 business of the day be pheasant or partridge shooting 

 how delightful, only those who have experienced 

 the change from game to duck are able fully to realise. 

 Duck, autochthonic birds, and little subject to 

 disease, are more easily reared than pheasants ; they 



