CH. XXXIV. FLAPPER-SHOOTING. 239 



I get is, " Oh, yes ! there are plenty of ducks, but 

 they always keep out at sea, and never come within 

 reach." Now if there are plenty of ducks out at sea, 

 it is a matter beyond all doubt that at certain hours 

 there are plenty of ducks feeding inland ; and 

 about the time when my informant is dressing for 

 his dinner, the wild ducks are flying to and fro in 

 search of theirs in the stubble-fields, which they 

 invariably do as soon as the sun sets, and the fields 

 are deserted by the workmen and others. 



As no bird is so easily scared from its usual 

 haunts as the wild duck, all long and random shots 

 ought to be avoided, as tending to frighten away 

 the birds and to spoil all chance for some time to 

 come in that spot. Ducks, too, are capricious, and 

 changes of wind and weather induce them to fly 

 in different directions and to feed in different fields ; 

 and, as I have already said, nothing but experience 

 and observation can teach the sportsman how to be 

 tolerably sure of filling his bag with these wary but 

 excellent birds. 



There is one kind of wild-duck shooting which 

 appears to me to be the very lowest of all kinds of 

 sporting, namely, that which is usually called " flap- 

 per shooting," which means murdering large num- 

 bers of young ducks by dint of dogs, guns, sticks, 

 &c., at a time of the year when nine out of ten of these 



