18 
OAKY ASS-BACK DUCK. 
“Another method 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 bird from these places ; and in 
some cases, a few applications have entirely prevented their return for some 
weeks. Paddling upon them in the night or day produces the same effect, 
and although practised 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 unpopular is the plan, that many schemes have been privately pro- 
posed of destroying his boat and gun, and he has been fired at with balls so 
often that his expeditions are at present 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 shooting has not been a general practice, 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. 
“Notwithstanding the apparent facilities that are offered of success, the 
amusement Of duck-shooting is probably one of the most exposing to cold 
and wet, and those who undertake its enjoyment without a courage ‘ screwed 
to the sticking-point,’ will soon discover that ‘ to one good a thousand ills 
oppose.’ It is indeed no parlour sport, for after creeping through mud and 
mire, often for hundreds of yards, to be at last disappointed, and stand 
exposed on points to the ‘ pelting rain or more than freezing cold,’ for 
hours, without even the promise of a shot, would try the patience of even 
Franklin’s ‘glorious nibblerA It is, however, replete with excitement 
and charm, and to one who can enter on the pleasure, with a system formed 
for polar cold, and a spirit to endure ‘ the weary toil of many a stormy 
day,’ it will yield a harvest of health and delight, that the ‘roamer of the 
woods ’ can rarely enjoy.” 
Although this far-famed bird was named by its discoverer after the plant 
Valisneria Americana, on which it partially feeds when on fresh-water, 
its subsistence is by no means dependent upon that species, which indeed is 
not extensively distributed, but is chiefly derived from the grass-wrack or 
Eel-grass, Zostera marina, which is very abundant on the shallows and 
flats along the whole sea-coast. Its flesh seems to me not generally much 
