THE GBEEN-WINGED TEAL. 243 



in many regions around our large cities almost to ex- 

 tinction, of all birds and beasts nay, but even fish of 

 chase, within the last twenty years. We must be care- 

 ful therefore not to charge exaggeration on a writer who 

 beyond a doubt, faithfully recorded that which he him- 

 self saw and enjoyed in his day; which we might see 

 likewise and enjoy in our generation, and our children 

 and grand-children after us, if it were not for the greedy, 

 stupid, selfish, and brutal pot-hunting propensities of our 

 population, alike rural of the country and mechanical oi 

 the cities, which seems resolutely and of set purpose 

 bent on the utter annihilation of every species of game, 

 whether of fur, fin, or feather, which is yet found within 

 our boundaries. 



In my opinion, the common error of all American 

 fowlers and duck shooters, lies, in the first place, in the 

 overloading the gun altogether, causing it to recoil so 

 much as to be exceedingly disagreeable and even pain- 

 ful and in the same degree diminishing the effect of the 

 discharge ; for it must never be forgotten that when a 

 gun recoils, whatever force is expended on the retro- 

 gressive motion of the breech, that same force is to be 

 deducted from the propulsion of the charge. In the 

 second place, he erroneously loads with extremely large 

 and heavy shot, the result of which is, in two respects, 

 inferior to that of a lighter and higher number. First, 

 as there will be three or four pellets of No. 4 for every 

 one pellet of A or B in a charge, and, consequently, as 



