not.

To his services I was recommended by the proprietor, of whom he rented his share of the water. He informed me, that the huttiers never allowed shooting from a boat, or at birds on the wing, through fear of disturbing the pond; and said, that his plan was to take his night's rest, and leave the birds till a little before daylight; when they would be all doubled together; and when a shot would do far less mischief to the decoy than if fired before the birds had fed and slept. Here he is perfectly right. But that if a "grande compagnie" should drop, the noise would awaken him, and he could then take his choice whether to fire or After inspecting all his apparatus by day, he would make me go with him by night, and being unwell at the time, and unprepared, I was scarcely in the humour to do this particularly as I knew that it was past the time of year for this kind of sport. I agreed, however, to go, and was conducted to one of his best intrenchments, where his twelve decoy-birds, all in battle array, were placed under the light of a beautiful moon, within a quarter of an English gun-shot of his hut, which was uncomfortably warm. Here I remained, more likely to be suffocated than chilled, for I know not how many hours; but not a wild-duck ever came, though his three alignements of decoy-birds kept chattering away like the other bipeds of the French nation; and although the whole valley, for a league, was resounding with the quacking of decoy-ducks, and defended by the masters of them, yet I could not have the honour to say, I had seen or heard the firing of a single shot. Had my experience ended here, therefore, I should have had but little inducement to recommend the French system. But I have since imported the French breed of decoy-ducks; tried it in Eng

land;, and find, that by this means, a gentleman with his little gun may sit at his ease, and kill more wildfowl than by any other plan I have ever seen; and without the risk of driving the fowl entirely away from his pond, which he would be liable to do by the use of punts, or any other mode of attacking them.

In this shooting, let it be remembered, that the ducks usually quit the large ponds at night, and therefore the huts for them must be made round the smaller waters, where they feed. But for the dun-birds, and all kinds of curres, the large pond will be the best place, as they seldom leave it; and if not too hard pressed, they may be driven like sheep (by means of a person paddling to and fro, at a distance; and occasionally making a little noise), either by night or day, towards any of the batteries which the shooter may choose to open on them.

Coots may be driven in like manner, but will not double up for a shot, like the others. Ducks and mallards will not allow you to drive them; but on the first alarm will generally take wing.

As a proof of the superiority of the French decoy-birds to the common English ducks, I need only mention, that several winters ago, when I sent over some of them to my kind and lamented good friend, the late George Lord Rodney, for his beautiful pond at Alresford; Mr. Sparry, then the bailiff, in order to secure them for the night on which they came, put them within a few hurdles, close before his house. When he got up in the morning, no sooner did he open his door than a number of wild-ducks flew up from within the little fence he had made, and into which these birds, of course, had enticed them. Several tame ducks had constantly been in, and all about, the

place; but these had never decoyed the wild birds, in the manner that had been done by the Frenchmen.* These birds have since bred so well as to stock the whole pond; and by their progeny being fed, when young, with oats on a drum-head, they would every day, while Mr. Sparry's family resided near the pond, fly in from all parts, and muster, like soldiers, to a roll of the drum! [Should this, like the shot of starlings, be thought a touch of the Alresford marvellous, I only beg of the sceptic to appeal, for the truth of it, to any one in the place.]

If the hut system is adopted, two or three huts should be made, and then the hutter has a choice which to take, according to the light and the wind. [Vide plate.]

Critic. Why have you put all your call-birds one way ? Author. Because ducks, when stationary, and not feeding, always sit facing the wind; or if in running water, with their breasts against the stream.

The "Invisible Approach" would be the best of all apparatus for this sport, in places where the ground is not too boggy to admit of either wheeling or carrying it; because with this you have your hut ready made; and a sweeping charge to cut a lane through the fowl. The machine might be left all night, with the gun ready loaded, and the call-birds planted. You have then only to steal down in the morning (which is always the time that birds assemble and sit thickest together, while "washing up" or sleeping, after their nightly feed); crawl into your den; lie to your gun; and when you find the company swimming to your fancy,-pull away.

* Many years ago, I sent a dozen French ducks to the Regent's Park; and the winter after, I observed that they had there decoyed at least thirty wildfowl: wigeon-tufted ducks-and dunbirds. This was, of course, a great novelty in the very smoke of London. But on my return to town, after the following winter, I do not remember to have seen any. Perhaps the skating may have driven the wild birds off, or perhaps the following winter was too severe for them to remain in fresh water.

446

SHOOTING WILDFOWL ON VIRGINIA WATER.

SHOOTING WILDFOWL ON VIRGINIA
WATER.

I was here shown an ingenious mode of sweeping down the wildfowl, in large quantities, by Mr. Turner, Her Majesty's keeper; who in his younger days, was a great performer in the fens. His plan for killing the wildfowl here, was to fix a great many large guns parallel to the edge of the lake, and to cover them over with grass. He planted them about a hundred yards apart; and had a long wire from the trigger of the foremost gun to the butt of the next one behind it; and so on. By this means he had only to plant, and then cock, all his guns; and by pulling off the first with some hundred yards of line, he opened on the fowl an almost instantaneous running fire, which swept the whole edge of the lake, where, after their nightly feed, the birds generally came to take shelter, or to sun themselves on a fine frosty day.

I think Mr. Turner told me that he had, by this means, once brought down seventy wild ducks, by one discharge of his battery.

DRESSING FOR PUNTS AND CANOES.

To keep gunning punts and canoes from leaking, or as those who use them call it, weeping, melt a pint of tar with a pound of pitch, and either half a pint of common oil, or a proportional quantity of suet. You have then only to pour a little of this mixture into the seams of your punt; and instead of bedaubing her all over the bottom, as we did in the old school, many years ago, have the bottom painted, with one or two thin coats of red lead, which will last much longer, and with which the boat rows much lighter.

White resin and mutton suet is even a better dressing, and by far the lightest of any. To avoid rubbing the bottom of your punt every time she is hauled ashore, have two small rollers, by which you will considerably save her: or what is still better, a little frame on wheels, in which to lash her stem, as shown in the foreground of our frontispiece.

Have your canoes and punts, previously to being put together, painted under every timber with red lead, and they will (to the no small annoyance of the builder) last you twice as long. But where the other paint is to go, do not put red lead, as it will neither look nor take so well upon it.

If you want good white lead for paint (instead of whitening and water), you can have it from Messrs. Walker, Parker, & Co., at the shot manufactory.