102 PROPORTIONS OF POWDER AND SHOT. the proper load for a fowling-piece is by firing at sheets of paper at given distances, and the progressive results will guide the shooter in the increase or decrease of either the powder or shot, or both. On investigation it will probably be found, that the general error in loading the fowling-piece, is using too much powder, which not only very much scatters the shot, but renders the recoil almost insupportable, it is quite a mistaken notion to suppose that a distant object will be better reached with a large load of powder, or that the force of the shot is thus increased; as it will be found, on experiment, that those pellets which strike the mark are not so strongly driven as when a reduced, but a correct, portion of powder is used, to say nothing of the scattering of the shot, by which a small object will generally be missed. Hence it is highly necessary that the correct charge should be ascertained, and uniformly adopted. CHAPTER XV. TOLING FOR DUCKS. MORE than forty years ago, this curious mode of getting ducks is said to have had its commencement, near Havre de Grace, Maryland. Tradition says the discovery was made by a sportsman, who, patiently waiting for a body of ducks to feed within gun-shot (as was then the only chance of getting a shot at them on the water), saw them suddenly raise their heads, and swim directly for the shore. On look-· ing for the cause of this strange manœuvre, he found they were decoyed by a red fox playing on the shore. An active, sprightly dog is generally selected for this service. They are taught from their infancy to run after small pebbles, and when taken to the shore, the sportsman, from behind his blind, throws stones up and down the shore, after which his dog runs. The continued action of the dog attracts the attention of the ducks, and they run into him. The only art necessary is to keep your dog in constant motion; a red colour is best, and a long bushy tail of great advantage. There are few dogs which gain celebrity in this capacity; they generally become too fond of the ducks, and either stop to look at them, as they approach the shore, or lay down; in either case, your sport is spoiled. The canvass-back and red heads are the best to tole, and they appear to be differently operated on. The former comes to the dog with head erect, sitting high on the water; and when near you has, if I may use the expression, a kind of idiotic look in the eye, whereas the latter are more sunk in the water, and appear unconscious of their approach to the shore. Ducks act very strangely sometimes. I have seen a dog play without effect at one spot, when, by moving a short distance to another blind, the same ducks would run into him as fast as they could swim. At other times I have seen them take no notice of a dog, when they would run immediately in to a red silk handkerchief tied to the end of a ramrod, and kept in constant motion on the outside and in front of your blind. To show you the value put on dogs, well trained to this sport, it was a custom, formerly, for the dog to get a share of the game equal with each sportsman, and I have often divided equally with the dog. There no doubt may be many amusing anecdotes related of this sport, and the quantity of blood shed in many instances is astonishing. CHAPTER XVII. THE FOX (C. VULPES). THE interest connected with the animal whose natural history we are now about to sketch, is of a very different order from that which we have discovered in the the horse and the dog. The fox is not the friend, but the enemy of man; as such we inquire into his history, to know his habits, detect his wiles, and to destroy him. In another respect, however, he is peculiarly interesting to the sportsman. The fox, which, in numerous varieties of colour, and differences in size, inhabits, all the northern and temperate regions of the globe, has a broad head, a sharp snout, a flat forehead, eyes obliquely seated, ears sharp and erect, a body well covered with hair, and a straight, bushy, and somewhat pointed tail. Its predominant colour is yellowish-red, or yellowish-brown; a little mixed with white or ash-colour on the forehead, shoulders, hind part of the back, and outside of the hind legs. The breast and belly are cinereous-gray, or whitishgray; the tips of the ears and the feet are black; the head is larger than that of the dog, in proportion to the size of the body; the ears are shorter, the tail much larger, the hair longer, and the eyes are more oblique. The intestines, too, particularly the cœcum, are more |