INTRODUCTION. 



In the following work 1 have endeavored to 

 lay before the public, in as concise a form as 

 possible, full and trustworthy explanations of the 

 various practical methods of hunting wild fowl 

 as followed in the inland portions of our country. 

 No book that I am yet aware of, published in 

 this country, has been devoted exclusively to the 

 subject; though a few short, fragmentary articles, 

 giving a general idea of the sport, are to be 

 found in the many volumes of our sporting 

 literature. 



Wild-fowling as an art is but very little 

 understood by the great majority of sportsmen. 

 It is attended with too much fatigue and too 

 many hardships to be followed by them as it 

 should be in all weathers, in order to become 

 thoroughly familiar with it. And even in the 

 warmer months, nearly all of our richer and 

 better-educated sportsmen, instead of making use 



