304 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



in public, so probably it is true, that when the birds are called 

 to feed away from their home waters by the sound of a horn, 

 they are penned up, and then let out a few at a time to fly 

 home over the heads of the guns. The Prince has expressed 

 the intention of never shooting at trapped creatures, and 

 probably he is unaware how the Netherby duck were managed, 

 because if it is done in the way described above there is a 

 sort of penning, but so managed as to give the duck all the 

 world before them if they elect to take chances before they 

 come to the guns. There is absolutely nothing to show that 

 the duck have been detained longer than just enough to divide 

 them into small batches, but what the Prince of Wales has 

 said does nevertheless express the sentiment of sportsmen 

 generally. The best deer shooting in the world is of no 

 sporting account if it is in a park and not on open ground, 

 and consequently there is a sentiment which counts for a good 

 deal in the manner of driving duck to the gun. 



The other plan to effect the same results without awakening 

 any question of the ethics of sport, is to be found in feeding 

 the duck, not in pens, but in a wide expanse of covert, and 

 teaching them to hunt all over it for their broadcast scattered 

 grain. If this plan is adopted, it is fairly easy with clever 

 management to send the duck home in small batches, provided 

 the feeding - ground is widely enough scattered, so that one 

 party of ducks cannot see another when it is flushed or when 

 in the air making for home. Duck imitate each other to such 

 an extent that if they did see one lot disturbed and made to 

 fly home, probably a great many would rise at once and do 

 the same. Obviously the better way to avoid this is to start 

 the duck out of covert at the end nearest home first " home " 

 being here, as above, used in the sense of the duck's resting- 

 place, which is generally, but not invariably, water. At 

 Netherby it is said that ducks are made to consider the coverts 

 their homes in some cases. It cannot be laid down to apply 

 generally that any one system is the best, because all depends 

 upon the kind of place the birds are to be reared in. However, 

 this may be taken to apply everywhere that it is easier to 



