264 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



HINTS FOR DUCKERS. 



Wild fowl are ever on the alert, and always ready to take alarm 

 at the least indication of danger, and therefore must be approached 

 with the utmost precaution or waited for in the profoundest 

 silence. The plashing of an oar, the rattling of a pebble, the 

 rustling of a leaf, the bobbing up of a head, the exposure of a 

 leg, the raising of an arm, or the utterance of a loud word, will 

 often put to sudden flight a whole flock of ducks a few minutes 

 before feeding in fancied security almost within reach of our 

 smallest gun ; therefore, "be as still as death itself, yet watchful 

 as life can make you." 



The sense of smell is singularly developed in wild ducks, and, 

 when approaching them on the water, it is necessary to get to the 

 leeward of them. Colonel Hawker very justly remarks, on this 

 point, " In following wild fowl, it is easier to get within twenty 

 yards of them by going to leeward than a hundred and fifty 

 directly to windward, so very acute is their sense of smelling." 

 This fact of their being able to scent an enemy a long distance off 

 is well known to the men employed in attending on the decoy- 

 ponds of England and France ; and, for the purpose of destroy- 

 ing or counteracting the odor emanating from their persons, 

 they always hold a piece of burning peat in their mouths when 

 visiting their nets. 



DISTANCES ON THE WATER. 



It is very difficult for the inexperienced to judge of distances on 

 the water, and the eye is consequently often deceived on such 

 occasions ; and a young sportsman not unfrequently will fire away 

 at wild fowl securely feeding far beyond the reach of a gun double 

 or treble the calibre of the one he is using, and then express great 

 astonishment that the load should have fallen far short of the 

 mark, or, perhaps, have scattered harmlessly in the very midst of 

 the intended victims. Experience and observation will alone cor- 

 rect this fault. 



