142 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
1 have here taken the liberty of extracting a single page from 
my friend Mr. Porter’s edition of Hawker’s work on shooting— 
an edition, which is rather a new work than what it modestly 
professes to be, and from which I should have borrowed more 
largely, had not I been prevented from so doing by the appre¬ 
hension of, in the least degree, interfering with its merited suc¬ 
cess. I eagerly take this occasion of recommending it to all my 
readers as a work of sure authority, especially on all that re¬ 
lates to gunnery, and to Western sport. 
“ The editor of the American edition of Colonel Hawker’s 
work is greatly indebted to Henry Dwight Chapin, Esq., of 
Baltimore, for the annexed original communication on the sub¬ 
ject of Canvass-back Duck shooting. Mr. C. is known through¬ 
out the country as a scientific and enthusiastic sportsman of 
twenty years’ standing. 
“ The season for shooting this much esteemed bird commences 
with its arrival at the head waters of the Chesapeake Bay, on 
or about the first of November, and continues in perfection for 
two months, and longer, if the severity of the weather does not 
close with ice its favorite haunts. Indeed thousands are killed 
during the months of January, February, and March, lower 
down the bay, but their flavor is not so delicate after they have 
been driven by the ice from their accustomed feeding grounds, 
which abound with the water celery, a plant whose bulbous root 
imparts the most delicious flavor to all the water fowl that feeu 
upon it. 
“ The usual mode of shooting them by sportsmen is upon the 
wing, as they pass a point, or a narrow neck of land, which 
they often do in flying from one feeding ground to another. 
The best guns used are of large calibre, from No. 12 to No. 7 
guage, and the shot of the size B or BB. The powder coarse 
grained, to obviate the recoil that necessarily ensues if fine¬ 
grained should be used. 
“ But there is a class of men, poachers, that shoot for market, 
who make the greatest havoc with this game. They silently in 
the night-time paddle or scull small boats into the very midst 
