AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
45 
touch any other kind, so refined is their taste. I have seen 
severe contests take place between crippled Canvass backs 
and gulls, and although a pounce or two generally prevents 
further resistance, sometimes they are driven off- If the 
bird is remarkably savoury, the gull makes such a noise, 
that others are soon collected, when possession is determined 
by courage or strength. 
Another mode of taking Ducks, consists in placing 
gilling nets under water on the feeding grounds, and when 
they dive for food, their head and wings become entangled 
in the meshes, and they are drowned. This plan, though 
successful at first, soon drives the birds from these places; 
and in some cases, a few applications has entirely prevented 
their return for some weeks. Paddling upon them in the 
night, or day, produces the same effect; and although prac- 
tised to some extent on Bush river, is highly disapproved 
of by persons shooting from points. For the last three 
years, a man has been occupied on this stream with a gun 
of great size fixed on a swivel in a boat, and the destruction 
of game on their feeding flats has been immense; but so un- 
popular is the plan, that many schemes have been privately 
proposed of destroying his boat and gun, and he has been 
fired at with ball so often, that his expeditions are at pre- 
sent confined to the night. Sailing with a stiff breeze 
upon the Geese and Swans, or throwing rifle balls from 
the shore into their beds, is sometimes successful. 
Moonlight Goose shooting has not been a general prac- 
tice, but as these birds are in motion during light nights, they 
could readily be brought within range by “ honking ” them 
when flying. This sound is very perfectly imitated at Egg 
Harbour; and I have seen Geese drawn at a right angle from 
their course by this note. They can indeed be made to 
hover over the spot, and if a captive bird was employed, 
the success would become certain. 
Stool Ducks are little known, and from the very partial 
success in their employment the last fall by the writer and 
his company, their usefulness seems very problematical. 
The art of shooting a Duck, is one difficult to acquire, 
the exceeding rapidity of their flight, rendering it necessary 
to direct the gun in advance, in proportion to their distance. 
It has been pretty well ascertained, that with a moderate 
wind, most of these birds can fly at the rate of a mile in a 
minute, or eighty-eight feet in a second; and, as no doubt 
an appreciable interval must elapse from the passage of the 
load from the barrel, till it reaches the object, in a distance 
of one hundred yards, an idea can be formed of the neces- 
sity of an allowance for flight. This interval is so distinct, 
that on most occasions the shot can be heard to strike, even 
at moderate distances, and when the result is fatal. Under 
ordinary circumstances, at forty yards the head is gene- 
rally aimed at; and at sixty, from six inches to a foot is 
M 
given; but, with a stiff breeze to help them, even three or 
four feet becomes necessary. With Swan at sixty yards, 
the head is still aimed at, but the neck prolongs that part 
to two feet in advance of the body. None of these birds 
should be shot at, when advancing, for the thickness of the 
covering of the breast, as well as its rotundity, diminish 
the chance of success; but experienced Duck shooters allow 
the bird to pass by them entirely, and then the shot strikes 
on a flatter surface as under the wing, and also passes in 
with the direction of the feathers. The same latitude of 
advance need not be allowed with the percussion gun, as 
with the flint, from the more instantaneous discharge, and 
this is one cause of failure in first use, and hence of the 
prejudice old duckers have to these guns. They have also 
conceived that a certain quantity of powder was necessary 
to kill, and finding that this proportion produced great 
recoil and uncertainty of effect, have condemned the plan, 
without ascertaining that less powder was really necessary, 
from its more perfect combustion. Of the advantages of 
the percussion over the common gun in this amusement, 
where wet days are often the most successful, nothing need 
be said as to the greater certainty of explosion; its merits 
are so well known, that in two years there will probably be 
few flint guns on the bay. 
In this sport, it is all important to have guns that can 
bear a heavy charge without recoil, as great weight in the 
breech. Ordinary fowling pieces will not bear sufficient 
loads, and unless the bore be large, with a proportionate 
thickness of barrel, the large shot to be thrown, will not 
kill at a long distance. The most useful proportion for a 
double gun, is, weight of barrels from ten to eleven pounds; 
length, forty-two inches ; calibre, thirteen-sixteenths of an 
inch. This proportion has been very accurately ascertain- 
ed, not only by experiments in England, but even in our 
own city; and within two years many such guns have ar- 
rived, in which the employment has confirmed the princi- 
ple. A few guns are in use, of a calibre of an inch and a 
half, and a weight of forty pounds, to be moved on a swivel. 
These have, on several occasions, killed eighty, or one' 
hundred birds at a time, but they are very unwieldy, and 
only employed when the Ducks are sitting. The size of 
shot best adapted to this sport, is still a disputed point; but 
the writer, and many of his friends, have arrived at the con- 
clusion, that BB is the best for Ducks, and the smallest 
mould shot for Geese and Swan. The smaller the shot 
is, the greater the chance of striking, from the increase 
of the number of pellets; but unless it be of good size, 
it will not enter the feathers, and Canvass backs are 
so thickly covered, that smaller shot will rarely kill. 
When on the water at a moderate distance, No. 1. shot 
will be sufficiently large, and there being nearly double 
