CHAPTER Vm. 



WTLD-FOWL SHOOTING. 



It is not proposed to give any extended account 

 of wild-fowl shooting as practised on the waters of 

 Long Island, or in the neighborhood of the great 

 Northern cities ; the unsportsmanlike modes of 

 proceeding which are there in vogue, and which, 

 while contravening all true ideas of sport, insult com- 

 mon sense by the ruthless injury they inflict, have 

 been fully set forth by other writers. 



In stationing a battery — that imitation coffin, 

 which should be a veritable one, if justice had its 

 wa)', to every man who enters it — and in lying prone 

 in it through the cold days of winter, the market- 

 man may find his pecuniary profit, but the gentleman 

 can receive no pleasure ; while the permanent injury 

 inflicted by driving away the ducks from their feed- 

 ing-grounds, and making them timorous of stop- 

 ping at all in waters fi-om any and all portions of 

 which unseen foes may arise, is ten times as great 

 as the temporary advantage gained ; and as for calling 

 that sport, which is merely the wearisome endur- 

 ance of cold and tedium to obtain game that might be 

 killed more handsomely, and in the long run more 

 abundantly, by other methods, is an entire misappli 

 cation of the word. 



