SHOOTING WILD DUCKS ARTIFICIALLY REARED 303 



pool they swing round and far above many times before they 

 venture to come near enough to the surface to afford a shot. 

 This is the nature of the really wild bird, which is nevertheless 

 partial to one home water, and is practically at home nowhere 

 else. Consequently, when duck are artificially reared, this 

 wild and pigeon-like habit must be eliminated in some way, 

 otherwise a thousand duck may show themselves only too 

 well, and give no sport whatever. The broad principle of 

 getting shooting at hand-reared ducks is, therefore, either to 

 prevent guns from scaring them, or else to arrange that instead 

 of seeing the shooters constantly they only see them once, 

 and that once when the birds are going home. The first plan 

 is very easily arranged by constantly letting the ducks hear a 

 shot or two about feeding-time. It can even be brought about 

 that the gun is the signal for food, and when that has been 

 accomplished the danger is not that the birds will be scared 

 away to sea or into the sky, but that they should settle near 

 the shooters and quack for food. But without making the 

 gun the actual signal for feeding-time, it is easy enough to let 

 the young birds hear enough of it to disregard it entirely. If 

 this is not done, the birds will not settle during shooting in the 

 neighbourhood, and if they will not alight they cannot be 

 driven. Another difficulty is that these birds love to associate 

 in great numbers, and in a big flock what one does they all 

 do. It is clearly too mad for a moment and dull for an hour 

 when all the duck come over at once, and so end a morning's 

 shooting. 



Two plans have been adopted for getting over the difficulty, 

 both of which are based on calling the birds to feed away from 

 home, and driving them back over the shooters in small 

 batches. 



This is open to sentimental objections, of course, but there 

 are two ways of doing even this : one of them seems to bear 

 lesser sentimental objection than the other. The most effective 

 plan is that one which it is said was adopted at Netherby 

 when and before the Prince of Wales shot there. The state- 

 ment has often been made, and has never been contradicted 



