TOLING FOR DUCKS IN CALIFORNIA. 229 



antelope, wlio are attracted close up to it. A per- 

 fectly calm day with liigh tides, is tlie best for the sport, 

 though why it is difficult to say. 



Francois told me that twenty years before he used to 

 regularly make his living in Chesapeake bay by ducking 

 and killing geese from " batteries.^^ The batteries 

 appear to have been large wooden boxes about seven 

 feet long and two feet deep ; these were sunk near the 

 edge of the shore, so that the top was almost level with 

 the sea. Sufficient water being all round the box, the 

 gunner enters and places a large number of decoys in 

 the vicinity. He then lies down and awaits the approach 

 of the unsuspecting fowl, when the result may be easily 

 imagined. Francois did not consider this at all an 

 unsportsmanlike performance; and yet when I asked 

 him whether he had ever seen ducks shot from a punt, 

 he said with great vehemence, " No, IVe only heard of 

 it ; but I call cannonading ducks unsportsmanlike and 

 humbug if you like.''^ Pauvre Fran9ois ! like mine host, 

 he liked his ease. I should like to have had him out 

 with me and Dan for only one night in Poole Harbour, 

 with a long swivel — the thermometer 10° below zero ! 

 V\\ warrant he would not have called that humbug:. 



We gathered up the victims and impartially divided 

 them amongst us, and, lighting our cigars, turned home- 

 wards. On our way we might have shot any amount of 

 ffighters going into the lagoons for the night, but we 

 had enough to make our backs ache already. I could 

 not resist the temptation, however, of having a bang at a 

 small lot of curlew that I judiciously stalked on the 

 beach, killing two outright and winging another, which 

 fell into the sea and was retrieved by the curly dog 

 instanter. 



