WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 330 



shooting distance of the ambushed fowler, by means of a 

 dog * trained to gambol to and fro along the margin of the 

 stream, in such a manner as to attract the attention of the 

 fowl, which are so easily excited to a sort of insane curiosity 

 by his movements, that the same flock have been known to 

 swim in half a dozen successive times, each time receiving 

 a murderous volley, and leaving the waters strewed with 

 their dead and wounded, without appearing to take per- 

 manent alarm. The black-head is, of all the ducks which 

 frequent those waters, that which is toled the most readily, 

 and the bald-pate the shyest. 



The shots obtained in this manner are, of course, sit- 

 ting shots, the birds sailing in from forty to seventy yards' 

 distance from the shore ; and it is necessary to remember, 

 that nothing is so deceptive as shooting over water; that as 

 the gunner lies in ambush, he is almost precisely on the 

 level of his object, and that it is the natural effect of these 

 causes to produce an overshooting of his mark. If the 

 piece be levelled directly, as it seems, at the middle of the 

 flock, the whole charge will almost surely pass far above 

 them. The correct way to aim is to see the whole of the 

 nearest duck in full relief above the sight ; this level will 

 in all probability rake the entire breadth of the mass of 

 ducks, and even if the charge strike on the near side of 

 them, the ricochet will be far more fatal than a plunging 

 shot. 



Paddling up to the birds in canoes on the feeding 

 grounds, sailing into them, or firing with heavy swivels 



* The action of the dog is described above, under the head of 

 Retrievers, at p. 218. 



