THE GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 243 
in many regions around our large cities almost to ex- 
tinction, of all birds and beasts—nay, but even fish of 
chase, within the last twenty years. We must be care- 
ful therefore not to charge exaggeration on a writer who 
beyond a doubt, faithfully recorded that which he him- 
self saw and enjoyed in his day; which we might see 
likewise and enjoy in our generation, and our children 
and grand-children after us, if it were not forthe greedy, 
stupid, selfish, and brutal pot-hunting propensities of our 
population, alike rural of the country and mechanical ot 
the cities, which seems resolutely and of set purpose 
bent on the utter annihilation of every species of game, 
whether of fur, fin, or feather, which is yet found within 
our boundaries. 
In my opinion, the common error of. all American 
fowlers and duck shooters, lies, in the first place, in the 
overloading the gun altogether, causing it to recoil so 
much as to be exceedingly disagreeable and even pain- 
ful and in the same degree diminishing the effect of the 
discharge ; for it must never be forgotten that when a 
gun recoils, whatever force is expended on the retro- 
gressive motion of the breech, that same force is to be 
deducted from the propulsion of the charge. In the 
second place, he erroneously loads with extremely large 
and heavy shot, the result of which is, in two respects, 
inferior to that of a lighter and higher number. First, 
as there will be three or four pellets of No. 4 for every 
one pellet of A or B in a charge, and, consequently, as 
