CHAPTER IV. 



WILD-FOWL SHOOTING IN ILLINOIS. 



SOMETHING like thirty-five years ago Colonel Hawker 

 wrote a work on duck shooting, which not only lauded 

 this amusement to the skies, but thoroughly and lucidly 

 explained how it could be successfully followed in 

 England. His descriptions were terse and clear, his 

 sketches graphic and true, the whole interspersed with 

 a certain amount of romance, which gained his work 

 many admirers, and this description of shooting many 

 votaries. The result, as might be expected, was that 

 from duck shooting only being followed by those who 

 shot for the market, it became a fashionable sport ; 

 and many who previously ignored such amusement, 

 as much as a genuine foxhunter would running a 

 bagged fox, or a crack shot killing a bird on the ground, 

 followed the now popular mania, and spoke with as 

 strong superlative expressions in its favour as they 

 formerly would have used in its condemnation. During 



