CHAPTER XLIV. 



WILD-DUCK SHOOTING. 



" Down close ! the wild-ducks come, and darting down, 

 Throw up on every side the troubled wave : 

 Then gaily swim around with idle play. 

 With breath restrain' d, and palpitating heart, 



I view their movements ." 



Fowling, a Poem, Book v. 



THE wild -duck (Anas boschasj is more eagerly pursued than any 

 other species of wild-fowl : the decoyer, the punter, the shore-gunner, 

 and the sailor-sportsman, one and all, are its constant persecutors. It 

 is not, therefore, to be wondered at that wild-ducks, as well as others 

 of the species wild-fowl, are the most timid birds of the feathered 

 creation : their customary resorts by daylight being on the loneliest 

 open waters, they are less familiar with the human form than land 

 birds, and consequently more susceptible to alarm and more awake 

 to suspicion. 



Wild-duck shooting requires the strictest silence, watchfulness, and 

 precaution, together with the services of a dog specially trained to 

 the pursuit.* 



The wild- duck being common throughout every country in the 

 universe, all sportsmen are more or less acquainted with its habits, 

 and every one with its flavour as a table luxury, though it can- 

 not now be purchased at so cheap a rate as in centuries past, when 

 a good mallard might be had for twopence. f 



The flesh of the wild-duck is, indisputably, far superior to that of 



* " This particular kind of sport requires more silence and prudent precaution than 

 any other ; of which the dog should, by unremitting perseverance, be made as per- 

 fectly sensible as his master." The Sportsman's Cabinet, or Delineations of Dogs ; 

 by " A Veteran Sportsman" 2 vols., quarto. 1803. 



f " Item : It is thought good that mallardes be boght onely for my Lordes own 

 mees, so they be good, and boght for ijd. a pece." Northum. Ho. H. Book, temp, 

 Hen. VIII. 



