AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



45 



touch any other kind, so refined is their taste. I have seen 

 severe contests take place between crippled Canvass backs 

 and gulls, and although a pounce or two generally prevents 

 further resistance, sometimes they are driven off. If the 

 bird is remarkably savoury, the gull makes such a noise, 

 that others are soon collected, when possession is determined 

 by courage or strength. 



Another mode of taking Ducks, consists in placing 

 gilling nets under water on the feeding grounds, and when 

 they dive for food, their head and wings become entangled 

 in the meshes, and they are drowned. This plan, though 

 successful at first, soon drives the birds from these places; 

 and in some cases, a few applications has entirely prevented 

 their return for some weeks. Paddling upon them in the 

 night, or day, produces the same effect; and although prac- 

 tised to some extent on Bush river, is highly disapproved 

 of by persons shooting from points. For the last three 

 years, a man has been occupied on this stream with a gun 

 of great size fixed on a swivel in a boat, and the destruction 

 of game on their feeding flats has been immense; but so un- 

 popular is the plan, that many schemes have been privately 

 proposed of destroying his boat and gun, and he has been 

 fired at with ball so often, that his expeditions are at pre- 

 sent confined to the night. Sailing with a stiff breeze 

 upon the Geese and Swans, or throwing rifle balls from 

 the shore into their beds, is sometimes successful. 



Moonlight Goose shooting has not been a general prac- 

 tice, but as these birds are in motion during light nights, they 

 could readily be brought within range by " honking" them 

 when flying. This sound is very perfectly imitated at Egg 

 Harbour; and I have seen Geese drawn at a right angle from 

 their course by this note. They can indeed be made to 

 hover over the spot, and if a captive bird was employed, 

 the success would become certain. 



Stool Ducks are little known, and from the very partial 

 success in their employment the last fall by the writer and 

 his company, their usefulness seems very problematical. 



The art of shooting a Duck, is one difficult to acquire, 

 the exceeding rapidity of their flight, rendering it necessary 

 to direct the gun in advance, in proportion to their distance. 



It has been pretty well ascertained, that with a moderate 

 wind, most of these birds can fly at the rate of a mile in a 

 minute, or eighty-eight feet in a second; and, as no doubt 

 an appreciable interval must elapse from the passage of the 

 load from the barrel, till it reaches the object, in a distance 

 of one hundred yards, an idea can be formed of the neces- 

 sity of an allowance for flight. This interval is so distinct, 

 that on most occasions the shot can be heard to strike, even 

 at moderate distances, and when the result is fatal. Under 

 ordinary circumstances, at forty yards the head is gene- 

 rally aimed at; and at sixty, from six inches to a foot is 

 M 



given; but, with a stiff breeze to help them, even three or 

 four feet becomes necessary. With Swan at sixty yards, 

 the head is still aimed at, but the neck prolongs that part 

 to two feet in advance of the body. None of these birds 

 should be shot at, when advancing, for the thickness of the 

 covering of the breast, as well as its rotundity, diminish 

 the chance of success; but experienced Duck shooters allow 

 the bird to pass by them entirely, and then the shot strikes 

 on a flatter surface as under the wing, and also passes in 

 with the direction of the feathers. The same latitude of 

 advance need not be allowed with the percussion gun, as 

 with the flint, from the more instantaneous discharge, and 

 this is one cause of failure in first use, and hence of the 

 prejudice old duckers have to these guns. They have also 

 conceived that a certain quantity of powder was necessary 

 to kill, and finding that this proportion produced great 

 recoil and uncertainty of effect, have condemned the plan, 

 without ascertaining that less powder was really necessary, 

 from its more perfect combustion. Of the advantages of 

 the percussion over the common gun in this amusement, 

 where wet days are often the most successful, nothing need 

 be said as to the greater certainty of explosion; its merits 

 are so well known, that in two years there will probably be 

 few flint guns on the bay. 



In this sport, it is all important to have guns that can 

 bear a heavy charge without recoil, as great weight in the 

 breech. Ordinary fowling pieces will not bear sufficient 

 loads, and unless the bore be large, with a proportionate 

 thickness of barrel, the large shot to be thrown, will not 

 kill at a long distance. The most useful proportion for a 

 double gun, is, weight of barrels from ten to eleven pounds; 

 length, forty-two inches ; calibre, thirteen-sixteenths of an 

 inch. This proportion has been very accurately ascertain- 

 ed, not only by experiments in England, but even in our 

 own city; and within two years many such guns have ar- 

 rived, in which the employment has confirmed the princi- 

 ple. A few guns are in use, of a calibre of an inch and a 

 half, and a weight of forty pounds, to be moved on a swivel. 

 These have, on several occasions, killed eighty, or one 

 hundred birds at a time, but they are very unwieldy, and 

 only employed when the Ducks are sitting. The size of 

 shot best adapted to this sport, is still a disputed point; but 

 the writer, and many of his friends, have arrived at the con- 

 clusion, that BB is the best for Ducks, and the smallest 

 mould shot for Geese and Swan. The smaller the shot 

 is, the greater the chance of striking, from the increase 

 of the number of pellets; but unless it be of good size, 

 it will not enter the feathers, and Canvass backs are 

 so thickly covered, that smaller shot will rarely kill. 

 When on the water at a moderate distance. No. 1. shot 

 will be sufficiently large, and there being nearly double 



