e water-meadows the ducks get among the
grass, and the larger water-carriers where they can swim usually have
small raised banks, so that at a distance only the heads of the birds
appear above them.

So that the best time to shoot a duck is just as he slopes down to
settle--first, because he is distinctly visible against the sky; next,
because he is within easy range; and lastly, his flight is steady. If
you attempt to have ducks driven towards you, though they may go right
overhead, yet it will often be too high--for they rise at a sharp angle
when frightened; and men who are excellent judges of distance when it is
a hare running across the fallow, find themselves all at fault trying to
shoot at any elevation. Perhaps this arises from the peculiarity of the
human eye which draughtsmen are fond of illustrating by asking a tyro to
correctly bisect a vertical line: a thing that looks easy, and is really
only to be done by long practice.

To make certain of selecting the right spot in the osiers over which the
ducks will pass, for one or two evenings previously a look-out should be
kept and their usual course observed; for all birds and animals, even
the wildest wild fowl, are creatures of habit and custom, and having
once followed a particular path will continue to use it until seriously
disturbed. Evening after evening the ducks will rise above the horizon
at the same place and almost at the same time, and fly straight to their
favourite feeding place.

If hit, the mallard falls with a thud on the earth, for he is a heavy
bird; and few are more worthy of powder and shot either for his savoury
flavour, far surpassing the tame duck, or the beauty of his burnished
neck. With the ducks come teal and widgeon and moorhen, till the swampy
meadow resounds with their strange cries. When ponds and lakes are
frozen hard is the best time for sport in these irrigated fields. All
day long the ducks will stand or waddle to and fro on the ice in the
centre of the lake or mere, far out of reach and ready to rise at the
slightest alarm. But at night they seek the meadow where the water,
running swiftly in the carriers, never entirely freezes, and where, if
the shallow spots become ice, the rising current flows over it and
floods another place.

There is, moreover, never any difficulty in getting the game when hit,
because the water, except in the main carriers, which you can leap
across, hardly rises to the ankle, and ordinary water-t