THE DUCK 301 



on days of formal sport, finding something 

 distasteful in this tamer counterfeit of a 

 true wild bird : we miss the right setting 

 of our sport; the note of solitude and 

 unwonted glimpses into the ways of the 

 wild ; familiar places, strange under the 

 mystic touch of dawn and the darkening; 

 extremes of wind and weather : and in 

 our quarry, the swift upward swerve on 

 the perception of danger, the difficulty of 

 approach and all the uncertainty, dis- 

 appointment, and hard-won success, that 

 make the pursuit of wild -fowl so attrac- 

 tive. 



All this, however, is but an affair of 

 sentiment; the duck is easily and econ- 

 omically reared, and makes pretty shoot- 

 ing when dexterously handled ; he has 

 earned his place in the rearing-field. 



The rearing of duck for the purposes 

 of sport is not altogether a modern 

 innovation ; unsuspected historical as- 

 sociations attach to the practice. Nearly 

 three hundred years old is the letter from 

 Sir Thomas Manson of Burton to the 



