The Canadian 



n a^d Naturalist. 



No. 2. 



MONTKKAI,, FEBRUARY, 1882. 



Vol. II. 



WILLIAM COUPER, Editor. 



TO OUR CORRESPONDENTS. 



We shall be pleased to receive communica- 

 tions upon till matters relating to Sport ami 

 Natural History, and our columns will always 

 be open to friendly discussions upon these 

 subjects. We have to request, however, 

 that our Correspondents omit all personalities 

 from their manuscripts, otherwise we shall 

 be obliged to refrain from publishing them. 



Ed. 



TOLING DUCKS. 



Some birds are very susceptible to the 

 promptings of curiosity, and advantage of this 

 is taken by sportsmen to decoy them by very 

 simple devices. The system of toling ducks, 

 though not very generally known in Canada, 

 has been practised in England and the United 

 States for a great many years past. 



Toling consists simply in attracting the 

 birds to the shore, where the gunner remains 

 concealed at some convenient spot, and is per- 

 formed by a dog, taught to run up aud down 

 the beach, where the ducks are feeding, at 

 some point not too far from shore. The dis- 

 covery of this mode of decoying ducks was 

 quite accidental, being attributed to a circum- 

 stance noticed by a sportsman, who, concealed 

 behind a blind, patiently awaiting the approach 

 of some Canvas Backs, observed that they 

 suddenly lifted up their heads and moved to- 

 wards the shore. Wondering at this unusual 

 procedure he naturally looked around to dis- 

 cover the cause, and observed a young fox 

 sporting on the river bank ; and the ducks, all 

 eagerness to gaze upon him, were steering 

 their course directly for the shore. This 

 mode of decoying, however, is confined to 

 very few species of ducks, and can only be 

 successfully practised early in the season, 



before tin' birds have be© me too waxy, 

 dogs require very little training to bo 

 adepts at toling, and will usually keep in 

 motion on the shore if they seea (lock of ducks 

 approaching. Canvas Back, Blue Hill and 

 Red Head arc the species generally procured, 

 as they are also the most easily attracted by 

 decoys. The writer, while snipe shooting at 

 Lake of Two Mountains in the Autumn of 

 1878, was a witness to the success of this 

 method of attracting ducks. Having seen a 

 large flock of Red Heads feeding at a distance 

 of about four hundred yards from the shore, a 

 hiding place was selected, and a small pointer 

 dog which accompanied u< was allowed to 

 run along the beach. At sight of the ducks 

 the dog betrayed great eagerness and ran 

 excitedly to and fro on the river bank, the 

 ducks in the meantime perceived his move- 

 ments and almost immediately turned their 

 course towards shore. In a few minutes, 

 more than fifty Red Heeds were within range 

 of our guns, some of them, in fact, not more 

 than ten yards from the dog, and all appa- 

 rently greatly interested in his motions. We 

 had deferred firing as they were pretty well 

 scattered in the water, but at last could 

 restrain ourselves no longer, and as the smoke 

 from our guns rolled away we gathered up 

 five birds, which we considered not a bad 

 result from our first experience in toling. 



Wallace. 



CRACK SHOTS. 

 Some sportsmen enjoy the enviable reputa- 

 tion of being what are termed " crack 

 shots," they have acquired such a degree of 

 skill in the art of shooting that if a bird rises 

 within range of their death-dealing tubes, no 

 matter how dense the cover, or how difficult 

 the shot, the unfortunate bird is doomed to 

 destruction aud is speedily consigned to the 

 depths of their game bags ! At least such is 



