194 DUCKS. 



most retired parts of some brook or trout stream; 

 where, if you spring the old duck, you may be pretty 

 sure that the brood is not far off. When once found, 

 flappers are easily killed, as they attain their full growth 

 before their wings are fledged i and for this reason 

 the sport is often more like hunting water rats than 

 shooting birds. 



If you leave the brood, after having disturbed them, 

 the old bird will remove them to another place long 

 before the following day. 



When the flappers take wing they assume the name 

 of wild ducks. About the month of August they repair 

 to the corn fields, till disturbed by the harvest people. 

 They then frequent the rivers pretty early in the 

 evening, and show excellent sport to any one who has 

 patience to wait for them. Our sporting writers in ge- 

 neral have given no further directions for duck shooting 

 than to walk quietly up a brook, and shoot them as 

 they rise. In doing this, if you have only a single gun, 

 arid should spring a bird at an uncertain distance, halloo 

 out before you shoot, as there may be others under a 

 bank, and much closer to you, that would spring on the 

 discharge of your gun. 



You need not be at a loss to know a wild duck. The 

 claws in the wild species are black. 



Some sportsmen recommend common land spaniels 

 for duck-shooting, and nothing is more common than 

 to see, in a picture, a smart-looking Tyro attacking a 

 flock of wild fowl with two open-mouthed dogs of this 

 description. This is an art we have yet to learn ; and, 

 I conceive, the best recipe to acquire it would be, first 

 to tie the ducks by their legs, taking care not to do as 

 the Italian once did with a hare, that he bought and 



