Beeton's book of poultry and domestic animals - Thurman Lodge ...

THE DUCK.
out of the qnestion, bent their way to the Little Eye, and took
possession of a sort of excavated hovel, where, under cover of a
few rough stones piled together, they were prepared to remain.
tiU high water ; when, if they were fortunate (but this was by
no means to be calculated upon with anything like certainty),
a floating flock of ducks and other sea-fowl would drift within
reach, and a well-directed fire might do prodigious execution."
On the coast of Hampshire this sport is still in vogue!. The
duck-shooter conceals himself tiU nightfall, and waits anxiously
till a flock has descended to feed. He then gets as near to
them as possible, and fires into the midst, and if he has another
gun snatches it up and fires again, and then hastens to the
spot and gathers up the spoil.
One of the most remarkable stories of duck-shooting is
related by Stanley, in his " History of Birds." " On one of
these expeditions," says he, " a duck -shooter, in Hampshire,
met with a perilous adventure. Mounted on his mud-pattens,
he was traversing one of these oozy plains, and being intent
only on his gajne, suddenly found the water rising with the
tide. A.ware of his dajiger, he looked round, but his retreat
was already cut off; he was surrounded by the flowing sea,
and death stared him iu the face. But in this desperate situation
his presence of mind remained, and an idea struck him
which might yet be the means of his preservation. He gazed
round to see if any part of the mud-desert was higher than
the rest, and observing a small portion stiU a foot or two above
the water, he hastened towards it, and when there, striking
the barrel of his long gun deep into the ooze, he resolved to
hold fast by it, as a prop to secure himself against the buffetings
of the waves, which were breaking angrily around him,
and had now reached his feet, and, at the same time, as an
anchor, to which he might cling, and not be carried away by
the current of the flowing or ebbing tide ; or, at all events, that
if it was to be his sad fate to perish, his body might be found
by those friends who might venture out to search for him.
Well acquainted with the usual rise of the tide, he had every
reason to suppose that it would not reach above his middle,
and that if he could endure the cold of six hours' immersion,
he might be saved. Unfortunately, however, he had not taken
into account the state of the wind, or some other causes, which
had not only brought the waters up more rapidly than usual,
but would also add to their height. Accordingly, having first
felt the chill and deadly sensation of ripple after ripple, now
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