152 AMERICAN GAME. = 
the cripples and drive up fresh flocks, while the gunner 
lies perdu literally under water, until he starts up to do 
bloody execution. 
The evil of this method, (of the other two, which I 
shall barely name, as they are far less practiced, one, I 
believe, only at one point,) is, that fowl, when constantly 
harassed and disturbed on their favorite grounds, while 
in the act of feeding, will rise high into the air 
and desert the places in which they are so wantonly 
“tormented forever; whereas they may be peppered at 
day by day for years, and decimated as they fly to and 
fro without connecting the idea of the persecution with 
the feeding grounds, and without increasing in shyness or 
decreasing in numbers. 
The second unsportsmanly and slaughterous plan is 
running down upon them before the wind under sail, 
while on their feeding grounds, which is easily done, as 
the fowl appear wholly unable to distinguish the rate of 
a sail-boat, and let it run closely in upon them before 
they willtake wing. The havoc thus made is prodigious ; 
the consequences as above, the permanent and entire de- 
sertion of the spots where such brutalities are practiced. 
The last is akin to these. It is a necessity to the Brant 
to sand and dust themselves occasionally, and probably 
to obtain small gravel-stones to aid their digestion, and 
they have regular sanding places, as they are termed, to 
which they punctually and constantly resort. This habit 
observed, the pot-hunter digs his hole in the sand-hill, 
