276 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
eat. Minks and crows seem to be the worst, so the sports- 
man, has no scruples about killing them if he sees them 
near the ducking grounds. 
The wild-fowl shooting of the West differs materially 
from that of the East, for in the former region the birds 
are generally shot near ponds and streams, or in the 
stubble fields, whereas they are shot along the sea-coast 
or the bays and rivers connecting with it, in the latter. 
Men use ordinary shoulder-guns in the West, but in the 
East they prefer small columbiads, known as duck-guns, 
which are capable of slaughtering a team or a paddling 
atatime. This difference in the systems of shooting is 
one reason, in my opinion, why Western sportsmen are su- 
perior to those of the Atlantic States in wing-shooting, 
but the latter excel them in bagging birds on water, as 
they are better judges of distance on that element. Men 
who may be capital shots on land often make a poor dis- 
play on water, and vice versa; and those who can put up 
heavy scores in regions where ducks fly close to the 
ground or near the shore, may hardly be able to count 
at all in places where the birds are shy. Some are also 
better at killing one species than another, as much of 
their success depends on the birds they have practised on; 
hence, one cannot judge of a person’s dexterity with the 
gun until he has seen him try it on all kinds of game. 
It is a truism that every sportsman has his favorite bird, 
for he who may be good at ducks, snipe, or geese, may 
not be able to do much with quail, ruffed grouse, or tur- 
keys. I have even known men who could make a big 
bag of ducks in flight-shooting, who could scarcely do 
anything with those bedded in the water, simply because 
they could not measure distance well, and did not know 
how to aim so as to produce the best result. The West- 
ern wild-fowler has one decided advantage over his East- 
ern co-laborer in duck-shooting, and that is, that he can 
have good sport with bay-birds during the middle of the 
