384} WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 



Indeed, the pursuit of wild ducks appears so much disregarded 

 by sportsmen, that gentlemen, who are the proprietors of exten- 

 sive marshes, seldom think of disturbing the rustics in their oc- 

 cupation of duck-shooting. We do not say that the latter are 

 allowed to approach the parks or pleasure-grounds of great men, 

 where wild ducks are protected as ornamental to pieces of water; 

 but, that such as are proprietors of marshes, in the general sense 

 of the term, seldom prevent the rustics from pursuing their 

 profitable amusement. It not unfrequently happens, however, 

 that hares and rabbits come to feed, as well as ducks, in the dusk 

 of the evening, particularly when the marsh happens to be situ- 

 ated at no great distance from strictly-preserved grounds, where 

 game in general is found in great abundance. The best station 

 that can be taken for shooting ducks is in a stubble, at a little 

 distance from the water, where the ditches that surround the 

 stubble empty themselves into the marsh, but, however, ge- 

 nerally contain water sufficient to afford the ducks an oppor- 

 tunity of swimming up them. Here the ducks will resort in 

 preference to any other situation, while the banks and the bushes 

 afford facilities for concealment to the shooter that will be sought 

 in vain in the open marsh. Under these circumstances, nothing 

 is more common than for hares to visit the stubble just described, 

 and they are then far more easily shot than ducks. On the ap- 

 proach of a hare, the shooter need only remain quiet ; if he has 

 any doubt of killing her as she passes, let him give a slight 

 whistle, when she will not only pause but raise herself on her 

 haunches, for the purpose, it would appear, of listening: nothing 

 can be more easy than to shoot her in such a situation. This 

 circumstance is, by no means, generally known ; and many gen- 

 tlemen, I have no doubt, who are extremely rigorous in the 

 preservation of their game, allow the duck-shooter to pursue his 

 avocation, unmolested, with the most perfect indifference. 



Vast numbers of docks are taken in Picardy, in France, par- 



