WILD WILD-DUCK 315 



as like the bursting of a bomb when they are shot at by the first 

 barrel, so that for the next shot the game may be anywhere 

 and going in any direction. This seems very admirable descrip- 

 tion, but it is only thanks to those " gazes " that the first shot is 

 not just as difficult as the second. The teal seems to be the 

 only bird that can set the laws of gravity wholly at defiance, and 

 at the glint of a moving gun can shoot straight upwards, 

 apparently at the same speed it was travelling forward before 

 being frightened. Often the bird is by this means out of range by 

 sheer altitude before the shooter has recovered from the intended 

 allowance ahead that he expected to have to give, and began to 

 swing for, before the teal converted themselves into living 

 rockets, and thus disconcerted the shooter. 



The beauty of this kind of duck shooting is that every 

 species of duck has a different flight from its successor, that the 

 shooter never knows what is coming, nor from what direction it 

 will be. One never does see all the grouse that pass near 

 enough for a shot, and then one is only watching one way ; but 

 in " gaze " shooting it is necessary to watch every way. This is 

 essentially sport in which humanity in a double sense is the 

 best policy. To shoot farther than you can kill is to wound 

 duck that will possibly die out at sea, and it is also to send all 

 the duck within hearing up one storey higher, and to spoil the 

 sport of your fellows as a consequence. 



The best sizes of shot for duck are probably No. 7 or 8 if 

 reliance is to be placed upon hitting head or neck, or No. 4 if it 

 is desired that body shots should kill. Probably No. 6 is the 

 very worst size to use, because it has power enough to get 

 through the breast feathers but not through the breast 

 bone of a duck at a moderate range. No. 8 does not appear 

 to the writer to do much damage to a coming duck unless 

 it catches him in the head and neck, and then it is fatal, 

 and that is all that can be said of No. 6, which has so much 

 less chance of hitting the vitals. There is a very well developed 

 horror of plastering, and that is the reason why No. 4 is very 

 popular for wild duck. A choke bore and No. 4 shot are a good 

 combination for this sport. 



