XXXI 



RIVER-DUCK SHOOTING 



MUCH that has been said about sea-duck shooting 

 applies to the shooting of the shoal- water ducks 

 or dabblers. These birds seldom frequent the salt bays 

 and lagoons, and are nowhere as abundant in the salt 

 marshes as they are in those where the wild-rice and 

 fresh-water reeds and rushes grow. The river-ducks 

 are shot from blinds on the shore, and in some places 

 from batteries placed in the open water; but the bat- 

 teries are more often used for sea-fowl, and, as I have 

 observed, their use is in most places now prohibited. 

 River-ducks are also shot from points or passes as they 

 fiy from one feeding-ground to another, in the same 

 way that sea-ducks are taken. 



It is most important in connection with this method 

 of capture to remember that the ducks have certain 

 well-defined- lines of flight, and that the sportsman's 

 blind must be under one of these. Observe well what 

 the ducks are doing on a given morning. The lines 

 travelled are not always the same. The wind, the 

 weather, or much shooting, may change the course, 

 and an observant gunner will soon change his blind so 

 as to be within range of the flight and not remain on a 

 given pass simply because the ducks flew over it some 

 other day. 



Jumping ducks, as it is termed is a favorite method 



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