26dt lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



Duck Dogs, when behind the blinds along the bay-shore, 

 watch the flight of Ducks as anxiously as the Sportsman him- 

 self, and often by their manners give evidence of the approach 

 of Ducks before they are observed by those on the watch for 

 them. 



BOATING DUCKS. 



Another method of killing Canvass-Backs is that of boating 

 them on their feeding-grounds in small skiffs, either in the day- 

 time or during the still hour of night. The latter plan, of 

 course, is the most destructive and terrifying to the Fowl. 



A large swivel, carrying several ounces of powder and a 

 pound or more of shot, is placed on the bow of a light-boat, and, 

 by means of muffled oars and under cover of the darkness, it 

 is carried into the very midst of the sleeping Ducks, and being 

 fired into their thick columns great numbers are destroyed as 

 well as crippled. This plan of killing Wild Fowl, however, is 

 very generally reprobated by all respectable parties interested 

 in this sport, and is very properl}'" restricted by legislative 

 enactment. Notwithstanding, however, the general discoun- 

 tenance of the community, and the severe penalties threatening 

 the participators in this unhallowed plan of butchery, many 

 unprincipled poachers, who shoot for the markets, boldly resort 

 to this expedient to fill their slender purses, in spite of all law 

 and the universal execrations of those who live in the neigh- 

 borhood of the bay. These impudent and reckless fellows 

 know full well the inefficiency of all such laws, owing to the 

 disinclination, or rather want of energy, on the part of the 

 people to enforce them ; for, without the assistance of those in- 

 terested in such matters, all legislative enactments in reference 

 to the preservation of Game soon become obsolete, and the laws 

 are no more than a dead letter.* 



* Strong efforts, however, were made at the Last session of the Maryhmd Le- 

 gislature to do something towards the protection of the Vv'ild Fowl on the Chesa- 

 peake, by the suppression of the Surface-Boats and the use of large guns ; but 

 the enactment was of little avail as regards the Surface-Boats, owing to some 

 unlooked-for defect in the framing of the act, and we now learn that there is 

 some probability of its being repealed altogether, which we very much regret ; 

 ■we would much rather see it made more rigid, and then strictly enforced. 



