XVI 



WILD DUCK SHOOTING ON PRESERVES 



THE reader no doubt wishes to know how wild ducks 

 can be shot on small preserves without driving 

 them away. When I first learned that they were pre- 

 serving wild ducks in England I wondered how the fowl 

 could be kept at home or within reasonable bounds after 

 the shooting began, but some simple experiments which 

 I made with mallards and dusky ducks, after I had 

 studied the English methods as described in the maga- 

 zines, soon satisfied me that the problem is as easy of 

 solution as standing an egg on end is when one knows 

 how. 



The secret of success lies in keeping a pond or small 

 stream absolutely safe and attractive at all times, so that 

 when the ducks are disturbed and shot at when they fly 

 about they will at once seek the safe refuge and remain 

 there. They will do this, provided the food supply, natu- 

 ral or artificial, and the cover are satisfactory. Some birds, 

 of course, may desert in company with strange ducks 

 which visit the preserve, but the game consists in mak- 

 ing the place so attractive that the visitors will be in- 

 clined to remain instead of taking the home birds away 

 with them. A correspondent of The Shooting Times and 



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