222 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



The flesh of the Wild Duck is much esteemed. But they are birds 

 which are very difficult to approach, in consequence of their sus- 

 picious nature ; and in order to get even a long shot at them, it is 

 necessary to have recourse to stratagem. Even when successful in 

 your aim, the shot often fails to penetrate, owing to the thick layers of 

 their downy covering. Various artifices, therefore, are employed to 

 lure them, all of which require some cleverness. Thus they are shot 

 from a watching-place, being attracted to its neighbourhood by em- 

 ploying domestic Ducks, which act as decoys (Plate VI.) They are 

 also shot from huts on the edge of the water. Sometimes they are 

 lured by means of lights, or by imitating their call. Many are 

 taken in nets, in decoy-weirs, and in snares • they are sometimes 

 even taken by means of baited fish-hooks, and many other strange 

 contrivances. 



The ordinary open duck-shooting, as represented in Fig. 84, is far 

 from being so productive as some of the former methods, but it is 

 much more attractive. No sport is more uncertain, but occasionally 

 none is more fruitful of success. 



Duck-shooting from a hut, as represented in Plate VII., is the 

 method most practised. The sportsmen are hidden in a small hut 

 placed on the edge of some lake or river, or it may be erected in 

 the middle of the water on a heap of stones. Here they lie in wait 

 for the birds in order to get a close shot at them. They generally 

 use fowling-pieces of great length and large calibre, called duck-guns. 

 Shooting from duck-punts is also practised all round the coast, and 

 on the larger lakes, ponds, and estuaries. 



On the Saone, the gunners, accompanied by a boatman, take 

 their places in a long, light, narrow, pointed boat, or punt, called a 

 fourquette. The two men, lying down in the bottom of the boat, 

 are hidden by brushwood placed in front of them, the muzzle of 

 the duck-gun protruding through the twigs. Thus floating down 

 the river among the ducks, they get an opportunity of shooting them 

 without being perceived. Sportsmen in France sometimes employ 

 a very odd artifice to baffle the suspicious instinct of these birds : a 

 man disguises himself as a cow by means of an outline of the 

 animal roughly made of common cardboard. Under favour of this 

 disguise he gets near the wild ducks without exciting their fears, if 

 only aware how to make good use of his device ; that is, if he de- 

 scribes gentle and graceful curves, so as to advance gradually without 

 alarming the timid Palmipedes. But this sport, though productive 

 enough when skilfully managed, is not unattended with danger. A 

 sportsman, who had dressed himself up in this disguise, happened 



