SHOOTING WILD FOWL. 59 



Next to the broadbills come the black ducks, which feed in shoal 

 water, and do not dive like the others. They hunt around the 

 meadows and on shallow flats, and are very wild, and one must hide 

 very carefully to get near enough to them for a shot. The red- 

 heads, or red headed broadbills, follow the black ducks in size, and 

 delicacy of flavor. They are considered almost equal to the canvas- 

 backs, and rank next to them in price. Of teal, which is an excel- 

 lent duck and in steady demand, there are a great many, both the 

 blue-winged in summer and the red-winged in winter. There are 

 some canvas-backs, but much more numerous are the gray and the 

 mallard ducks. There are many wood-duck and widgeon, and in 

 winter time lots of whistlers. Brant are scarce now. They used to 

 be plenty, and one man thought nothing of killing forty or fifty a 

 day. They are from one to two-thirds as large as a goose. Of wild 

 geese there are still a good many. 



Wood-Cock Shooting. 



The shooting of the wood-cock requires more skill and experience 

 than any other game. It is an uncertain bird, that requires careful 

 treatment, but is worth all the trouble. A team of small spaniels is 

 all that is needed in the way of dogs; as nearly everything depends 

 on the trigger. When the cover is beaten, look sharp for the cock, 

 as your shot must depend very much on his humor, whether he is 

 all alive or sluggish. Sometimes, he will not stir until fairly 

 beaten out of the cover, and then a shot will bring him down. 

 Then again he will be off and away almost before the cover has been 

 touched. 



When in places likely to hold a cock, towards evening try the 

 mosses, banks of rivulets, and boggy bottoms. At that time the birds 

 are on the 'road ' or feed, and, consequently, are more easily met 

 with than when laid up in the snug harbor of some old osier-bed, or 

 beneath the root of some monarch of the forest When flushed, 

 the wood-cock seldom, if ever, pitches on feeding ground. 



"In the south, 'fire-hunting ' is usually practiced by those desirirg- 

 specimens of this extremely wily bird," says a southern sportsman, 

 u but they seem to have different habits there from here, or at least 

 have better opportunities for evading the hunter and preventing him 

 from enjoying the shooting of them from behind a dog. The 

 swamps and brakes are so dense about the haunts of the wood- cock 

 in Mississippi that it is next to impossible to make jour way into 



