138 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
after swimming up and down for a few seconds, they retrograde 
to their former station. The moment to shoot is while they 
present their sides, and forty or fifty Ducks_ have often been kill¬ 
ed by a small gun. The Black-heads tole the most readily, then 
the Red-heads, next the Canvass-back, and the Bald-pates rare¬ 
ly. This also is the ratio of their approach to the points in 
flying, although, if the Canvass-back has determined on his 
direction, few circumstances will change his course. The total 
absence of cover or precaution against exposure to sight, or 
a large fire, will not turn these birds aside on such occasions. 
In flying-shooting, the Bald-pates are a great nuisance, for they 
are so shy that they not only avoid the points themselves, but 
by their whistling and confusion of flight at such times alarm 
others. 
“ Simple as it may appear to shoot with success into a solid 
mass of ducks sitting on the water at forty or fifty yards’ dis¬ 
tance, yet when you recollect that you are placed nearly level 
with the surface, the object opposed to you, even though com¬ 
posed of hundreds of individuals, may be in appearance but a 
few feet in width. To give, therefore, the best promise of suc¬ 
cess, the oldest duckers recommend that the nearest duck should 
be in perfect relief above the sight, whatever the size of the 
column, to avoid the common result of over-shooting. The 
correctness of this principle 1 saw illustrated in an instance in 
which I had toled to within from forty to seventy yards off the 
shore, a bed of certainly hundreds of ducks. Twenty yards be¬ 
yond the outside birds of the dense mass, were five Black-heads, 
one of which was alone killed out of the whole number, by a 
deliberate aim into the middle of the large flock from a rest, by 
a heavy well-proved Duck gun. 
“ Before I leave the subject of sitting-shooting, I will mention 
on occurrence that took place in Bush River, a few years since. 
A man whose house was situated near the bank, on'rising early 
one morning, observed that the river had frozen, except an open 
space of ten or twelve feet in diameter, about eighty yards from 
the shore, nearly opposite his house. The spot was full of 
