"Quite tall enough."
W.L. Colls, Ph. Sc.
CHAPTER IV
SHOOTING
The chief difficulty confronting a host who desires to give his guests good sport lies in the fact that it is no easy matter to get young hand-reared wild ducks to fly well, and I propose in this chapter to endeavour to show how it can best be done.
I say young birds, as I think it will be admitted that wild duck, if shot in late October or November, will nearly always fly well. Many sportsmen will, however, for various reasons, not want to keep their birds so long, either on the score of expense or for fear of their straying from home. Young wild ducks hatched about the second week in April should, if properly fed, be in good plumage and fit to shoot by the first week in September; and why, their owner naturally asks, should they go on eating their heads off when they are ready to be shot and eaten themselves. Partridge driving has not begun and the first edge has been taken off the grouse, so why should not the ducks be shot now; moreover, if fed well they will fetch a good price in the market at this time, as they will be in the nature of a treat so early in the season. The methods of shooting hand-reared wild ducks may be divided into four:—
1. Posting the guns at different spots on the margin of a lake or near it, and flushing the ducks by means of dogs and beaters.
2. Teaching the ducks to take a particular line of flight by means of a horn, and then, without using the horn on the day of the shoot, intercepting them during their flight.
3. Catching the ducks beforehand, liberating them in convenient numbers, and then driving them over the guns.