92 VARIETIES OF SHOOTING. 



that they can seldom be shot on the water, and if not killed 

 dead they do not rise to the surface. The most likely 

 method is to conceal yourself and send a man to hunt them 

 out on the other side, when they will sometimes rise fear- 

 lessly and expose themselves to your shot. 



DECOY-DUCK SHOOTING. 



It is a very common practice in France, and occasionally 

 also in this country, to entice wild ducks within reach of an 

 ambushed gun by means of decoy ducks. A hut is first built 

 and carefully concealed by bushes, &c., near a small piece of 

 water, which must of course be within call of the haunts of 

 the ducks. Then fastening down five or six decoy ducks 

 near one another on the water, their incessant quacking calls 

 down the wild birds, and as these alight on the water they 

 are swept off by the guns in ambush. It is not a very digni- 

 fied sport, nor can I understand how it can be considered as 

 anything more than a business ; but there is no accounting 

 for tastes, and I therefore mention it here as one of the means 

 of shooting wildfowl. Both ducks and teal answer to the 

 call of the decoy duck, but widgeon refuse altogether. 



MARINE WILDFOWL SHOOTING. 



Until the example and writings of Colonel Hawker intro- 

 duced this sport to public notice, it was almost entirely con- 

 fined to those who sought wildfowl for the poulterers, and 

 were actuated solely by the love of gain. Nor has this kind 

 of shooting even since his time become general, the difficulties 

 and hardships in it being sufficient to deter most men. In 

 the work on " Shooting," which has made the name of Hawker 

 universally known, the details are given at great length, not 

 only of the mode of carrying out the sport, but also of the 

 punt-guns, punts, mud-boards, &c., which are necessary for 

 it. In the present day small yachts of six or eight tons are 

 preferred by gentlemen to the punt, being more safe than 

 those frail machines, and also being sufficiently roomy to 

 carry a friend as well as the proprietor and a couple of men. 

 Birds seem to bear the approach of a sailing boat much 



