DUCK-SHOOTING. 207 



cover of a few rough stones piled together, they were 

 prepared to remain till high water; when, if they 

 were fortunate, (hut this was by no means to he 

 calculated upon with anything like certainty,) a 

 floating flock of Ducks and other sea-fowl would 

 drift within reach, and a well-directed fire might 

 do prodigious execution. 



We have heard of we know not how many dozens 

 of birds killed or disabled by this solitary broadside : 

 whether the birds have retired from this part of the 

 river, or the patience of the Duck-shooters has been 

 exhausted, we cannot say; but of late years the 

 sport seems to have been discontinued. 



In the south of England, this mode is however 

 still practised. On the coast of Hampshire, the 

 marksman conceals himself till night, and then, 

 listening with attention, directs his course towards 

 the spot on which a flight of sea-fowl has descended 

 to feed: when he judges himself sufficiently near, 

 he directs his piece, and fires at a venture, and in- 

 stantly catching up another gun, discharges it where 

 he supposes the flock to be rising on the wing; he 

 then hastens to the spot with his mud-pattens, and 

 gathers up the profits of his toil. 



"We suspect, indeed, that the birds have seceded 

 from the whole line of the river Dee; for the flights 

 now seen are not to be compared with those which 

 are spoken of as frequent a few years ago, when a 

 couple of experienced Duck-shooters, we believe 

 from the fens of Lincolnshire, spent some weeks on 

 the coast, and realized a considerable sum by sup- 

 plying the Chester and Liverpool markets. Their 

 plan was this : One of them had a small flat-built 



