WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 339 
shooting distance of the ambushed fowler, by means of a 
dog * trained to gambol to and fro along the margin of the 
stream, in such a manner as to attract the attention of the 
fowl, which are so easily excited to a sort of insane curiosity 
by his movements, that the same flock have been known to 
swim in half a dozen successive times, each time receiving 
a murderous volley, and leaving the waters strewed with 
their dead and wounded, without appearing to take per- 
manent alarm. The black-head is, of all the ducks which 
frequent those waters, that which is foled the most readily, 
and the bald-pate the shyest. 
The shots obtained in this manner are, of course, sit- 
ting shots, the birds sailing in from forty to seventy yards’ 
distance from the shore; and it is necessary to remember, 
that nothing is so deceptive as shooting over water; that as 
the gunner lies in ambush, he is almost precisely on the 
level of his object, and that it is the natural effect of these 
causes to produce an overshooting of his mark. If the 
piece be levelled directly, as it seems, at the middle of the 
flock, the whole charge will almost surely pass far above 
them. The correct way to aim is to see the whole of the 
nearest duck in full relief above the sight; this level will 
in all probability rake the entire breadth of the mass of 
ducks, and even if the charge strike on the near side of 
them, the ricochet will be far more fatal than a plunging 
shot. 
Paddling up to the birds in canoes on the feeding 
grounds, sailing into them, or firing with heavy swivels 
* The action of the dog is described above, under the head of 
Retrievers, at p. 218. 
