UPLAND SHOOTING. 
109 
ducks are fixed on a frame, in various swimming postures, and 
secured to the bow of the gunner’s skiff, projecting before it in 
such a manner that the weight of the frame sinks the figures to 
the proper depth ; the skiff is then dressed with sedge or coarse 
grass, in an artful manner, as low as the water’s edge, and under 
cover of this, which appears like a party of Ducks swimming 
by a small island, the gunner floats down, sometimes to the very 
skirts of a whole congregated multitude, and pours in a destruc¬ 
tive and repeated fire of shot among them. 
u In winter, when detached pieces of ice are occasionally 
floating in the river, some of the gunners on the Delaware paint 
their whole skiff, or canoe, white; and laying themselves flat 
at the bottom, with the hand on the side, silently managing a 
small paddle, direct it imperceptibly into or near a flock, before 
the Ducks have distinguished it from a floating mass of ice, and 
generally do great execution among them. A whole flock has 
sometimes been thus surprised asleep, with their heads under 
their wings. 
u On land, another stratagem is sometimes practised with great 
success. A large, tight hogshead is sunk in the flat marsh or 
mud, near the place where Ducks are accustomed to feed at 
low water, and where, otherwise, there is no shelter; the edges 
and top are carefully concealed with tufts of long, coarse grass, 
and reeds or sedges. From within this, the gunner, unseen 
and unsuspected, watches his collecting prey; and when a suf¬ 
ficient number offers, sweeps them down with great effect. 
“ The mode of catching Wild Ducks, as practised in India 
and China, the island of Ceylon, and some parts of South Ameri¬ 
ca, has been often described, and seems, if reliance may be 
placed on those accounts, only practicable in water of a certain 
depth. The sportsman, covering his head with a hollow wooden 
vessel or calabash, pierced with holes to see through, wades 
into the water, keeping his head only above, and thus dis¬ 
guised, moves in among the flock, which takes the appearance to 
be a mere floating calabash, while suddenly pulling them under 
by the legs, he fastens them to his girdle, and thus takes as 
