Wild-fowl

Front matter

f|

Fur, Feather, s- Fin Series

edited by ALFRED E. T. WATSON

Preface

The design of the Fur, Feather, and Fin Series is to present monographs, as complete as they can possibly be made, on the various English birds, beasts, and fishes which are generally included under the head of Game.

Books on Natural History cover such a vast number of subjects that their writers necessarily find it impossible to deal with each in a really comprehensive manner ; and it is not within the scope of such works exhaustively to discuss the animals described, in the light of objects of sport. Books on sport, again, seldom treat at length of the Natural History of the creatures which are shot or otherwise taken ; and, so far as the Editor is aware, in no book hitherto published on Natural History or Sport has information been given as to the best methods of turning the contents of the bag to account.

vi PREFACE

Each volume of the present Series will, therefore, be devoted to a bird, beast, or fish. Their origin will be traced, their birth and breeding described, every known method of circumventing and killing them — not omitting the methods employed by the poacher — will be explained with special regard to modern developments, and they will only be left when on the table in the most appetising forms which the delicate science of cookery has discovered.

ALFRED E. T. WATSON

Contents

PAGE

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCK . 3

By L. H. De Visme Shaw

Chapter I

A WHOLE host of people — excellent in their way, no doubt — who have heard or read with more or less understanding of what takes place when a punt-gunner has succeeded in making his way within ideal range of a large company of widgeon, look upon wild-fowling as wanton butchery, and, according to their way of thinking, even more unsportsmanlike than covert beating and partridge driving. Just as they imagine, and sometimes rush into print about, hordes of helpless — always helpless — pheasants as tame as barndoor fowls massacred in cold blood by a body of men calling themselves sportsmen, who slay their victims simply to gratify a debased, and quite incomprehensible, lust for slaughter; so do they imagine flocks — always flocks — of duck peacefully and innocently resting on the placid sea, while the wicked wild-fowler calmly paddles up in his punt, trains his miniature cannon — always miniature cannon — on the helpless — again always helpless — birds, and blows them out of the water. After blowing one flock out of the water, he paddles off and does the same thing to another flock, and so on and so on, feeding his debased slaughter-lust to satiety. The picture is not overdrawn.

These good people have no idea of the realities of the wild-fowler's craft, or of the realities of any kind of shooting. To their unsophisticated humanitarian mtelligences all sport is wanton and inhuman, all sportsmen are degraded victims of the lust for blood. Punt-gunning needs no defence in the eyes of those who know what it really is, namely, the most arduous, exacting, and uncertain of all forms of English sport, a pursuit which demands consummate observation, calculation, patience, skill, and virility on the part of whomsoever would engage in it successfully, and in which the disappointments and failures are very many and the rewards very few and very small. One would like to take some of the idiots who, wholly ignorant of the practical side of the subject, air their periods in gratuitous defamation of * blood sports ' and sportsmen, and subject them just for a time to a compulsory course of punt-gunning experiences. Unless their nerves gave way, under the strain or their bodies collapsed, it would do them a world of good. We should hear no more from them about helpless flocks of ducks ; what we should probably hear would be expressions of wonderment at the strangeness of any man being able to derive a grain of pleasure from passing a bitter winter's day in a horribly uncomfortable punt, making occasional efforts to approach unapproachable birds, and perhaps at last, as the result of the keenest calculation, securing the chance of firing a shot yielding half a dozen widgeon.

A similar course of experiences among partridges and pheasants might do as much good to other idiots who, their imagination running riot, or writing on the authority of some brother idiot whose ignorance they take for knowledge, make the vilification of the game-preserver and shooter their speciality. Sportsmen almost without exception have the liveliest and most cordial sympathy with all movements tending to suppress cruelty and lessen suffering, and to give mankind an exalted view of his moral obligations towards the lower animal creation ; but of the silly, effeminate ignoramuses who shriek against sport — the Briton's birthright— and the imagined iniquities of its followers, they can have no feeling save contempt mingled with some amusement and a Uttle pity.

'To stalk in a punt* — as bearing upon the foregoing paragraphs, I am quoting the well-known words of the most practical exponent of wild-fowling who has written in our own time — ' a number of fowl, whether geese or duck, on broad shelterless waters, will often require the manoeuvring of a general, the patience, silence, and cunning of an experienced deer-stalker, and the hardihood and pluck of a lifeboat crew, together with the cool, watchful eye of its coxswain. The chances are always, save on the rarest occasions, in favour of the birds and against the shooter. . . . We have known men accustomed to tiger-shooting, to elephant-slaying, to stalking of every sort and kind, to salmon-fishing, and to all the sports and most of the excitements of the world, admit that during the few minutes previous to drawing in shot of a vast assembly of wild-fowl, with a big swivel gun cocked and ready before them as they lay prone in the punt, their hearts seemed to beat louder than ever they did before. At such a moment an intense anxiety takes possession of the merest novice lest the birds should fly off before he can obtain a shot. . . . He sees geese, duck, widgeon, and teal, and many other birds, as he never saw them before, swimming, washing, playing, and calling within a hundred yards of him. . . . Perhaps he gets within shot, aims true, and then picks up his score or two of beautifully plumaged birds ; but it must be observed that this is no easy matter except under the most favourable conditions of wind and tide. After such a shot, a rest, a pull at his flask, and a look at the spoil, he vows that wild-fowl-shooting is about as hard and as exciting a sport as can be imagined. If, when in shot, he misses, which is an extremely easy thing to do, it only makes him more anxious to succeed better next time, and his one fear is that he will not have another equally good chance. A sportsman once touched with the fever of wild-fowl-shooting afloat, or who has once felt the charm of success in this fascinating and scientific sport, will never give it up so long as his strength will stand the exposure it is necessary to undergo.'

A whole host of other people, shooting-people this time, hold ideas on the subject of wild-fowUng which practical experience would very soon dispel. The chief of these ideas is that with regard to the degree of sport which falls to the lot of the average fowler on our coasts. People think the punt-gunner makes infinitely better bags than he really does. I suppose this erroneous impression — I have found it almost general among inland shooting men — is the outcome of reading wild-fowling matter in the press.

Many of the punting fraternity contribute experiences to various papers of various classes. These writings detail the sunny side — the occasional big shot in occasional weather, the occasional week during which luck and skill combined have run up a total worth talking about. Of the other side— periods when the fowl are so few that blank or almost blank days follow one another in dejecting succession, times when the birds are near at hand in abundance, and yet are put beyond the gunner's reach by the state of the sea, spells of waiting on and setting up to duck and geese, whose vigilance it is found almost impossible to circumvent, days which are full of promise, yet in which some unforeseen circumstance wrecks the accomplishment of every prospective shot-— we seldom hear. The consequence is that very many people think they have only to buy a punt and gun in order to secure certain and firstclass sport. The majority — as far as my own experience in the matter is a guide — of those who start punt work throw up the game in disgust after a brief trial. Their patience meets with no sufficient reward ; they think the possibilities and probabilities of wild-fowling have been greatly exaggerated ; their first experience is enough for them : they can see nothing in the sport compared with the certain and continuous sport at the command of the dry-land gunner. The sunny side has been too vividly im- ' pressed upon them : the contrast of the real with the ideal has proved too great.

That man who is weak enough to imagine that there is any short cut to success in shooting wildfowl afloat, and acts upon his belief, is fore-doomed to certain disappointment. Not all the advice ever written will give him the knowledge, the skill, and the powers of observation and calculation which are requisite before he can make himself a wildfowler of even moderate calibre. These things are only to be learned in the schools of failure and practical experience. However good an inland sportsman a man may be, he must start from the beginning when he takes to the water. He must learn the habits and peculiarities of the different fowl ; he must learn how to manage his punt from the prone position, an art in itself; he must learn to judge distance on water, so different a thing from judging distance on land ; he must tell what is the most favourable moment for setting up to the birds ; he must learn when to fire and how to fire. And after he has learned all this and more, and, with several seasons' experience behind him, is entitled to rank as on old hand, he will still find that disappointment and failure must always play a very 'large part in wild-fowling. Every calculation is upset again and again. In those gloriously uncertain three minutes which precede a possible shot, any one of a dozen absolutely fatal things may happen. Even when everything has gone well, and the gunner finds himself within range, the slightest mistake in aiming or in choosing the moment to pull the trigger may mean the difference of a possible heavy shot, and merely two or three couple of birds, or very likely none at all.

As I would warn an uninitiated reader in the foregoing matters, so also would I warn him against the use of the punt if he is in any way constitutionally weak or nervous. Should he suffer in these respects, it is far better for him to leave the whole thing alone. Wild-fowling afloat is hard, rough, and often risky work — work for the physically and mentally robust, for the man who is tough enough to stand long exposure without feeling it, who can rely upon his presence of mind under any circumstances, and not for one whose shaky points are told upon by cold and wet, or one who may lose his head at some critical juncture, and, failing resource, come to grief thereby. Every punt-gunner who takes the legitimate risks of his sport finds himself at one time or another in some situation which would prove a remarkably unpleasant one if he were bereft of coolness and judgment. A punt is not the safest of salt-water craft, weather changes are often very rapid, and excitement now and again leads nearly every fowler to run risks which he would not be inclined to run in cold blood. * Caution ' is a very excellent motto for the fowler.

Wild-fowling afloat may be divided into two branches : the use of the single-handed and that of the double-handed punt ; and punt-gunners into two classes, the many who work from the shore, and the few who have the time and means to cruise in a shooting yacht. Needless to say the latter class has many advantages over the former — quarters may be shifted at will ; fowl haunting feeding grounds far out at sea may be watched in comfort pending the arrival of a favourable time for attempting a shot. The large majority of punt-gunners are limited to sport in the immediate locality of their homes, or of the centre they have chosen as the base for their operations. Of this majority, the many rely solely on their punts ; the few make use of what is generally known as a following boat — a rowing boat of light draught — which tows the punt, and in which the gunner and his man sail or row in search of sport, the punt being launched at fowl when they are found.

The fowling punt is a narrow, flat-bottomed craft, painted to appear as inconspicuous in the water as possible. With its light draught it can be used in very shallow water. It is decked fore and aft and at the sides. Round the cockpit runs low coaming, parts of which can be folded down or removed, in order to allow the puntsman's or gunner's arm or arms free movement when using paddles, setting-pole or scull. On the fore-deck lies the heavy swivel-gun, breeched so that its recoil is taken up by the punt. The gunner when setting up to fowl lies prone in the cockpit, his head but just high enough to enable him to see the birds.

To deal fully with all that could be said on the punt and the swivel-gun would entail writing at far greater length than the scope of this volume allows. Exhaustive descriptions are to be found in different works on wild-fowling, and to these the reader is referred. Individual fowlers as well as the fowlers of certain localities are biassed in favour of certain details of the size and proportions of their punt and the weight of their guns. Within rational limits, the make and size of a punt are not of more than small importance, but if these limits are exceeded in the one or the other direction, either the user's sport will fall short of the best possible or else his personal safety will be subjected to considerable risk. The balance has to be struck somewhere between speediness and handiness on the one hand and safety on the other ; between the slow heavy tub which was good enough when gunners were few and fowl plentiful and tame — a type still favoured by certain sportsmen of the more nervous or discreet kind — and the really dangerous craft one sometimes sees in use on the coast, there is a highly desirable mean. Though a punt must be slight and fast, in the long run there is no advantage derived from cutting things very fine ; shots may be had in still water from a very slight and fast punt which might or would have been unattainable from a slower one with more beam ; but, on the other hand, the heavier punt can be launched at fowl under conditions which would render the use of the slight punt dangerous or decidedly risky. Of course if a punt be required only for use on some sheltered estuary, it may be built on slighter lines than one in which the wild-fowler's ordinary risks are taken. In the opinion of the very large majority of fowlers, Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey has said, in the ^ Badminton Library,' the last word that can be said on punt dimensions. As the question is of the first importance to duck-shooters, I venture to give abridged quotations of his figures.

A single-handed punt for paddling to fowl, to carry a swivel-gun of from ^ 80 lbs. to 1 1 2 lbs. weight, and a man of about 1 2 stone, may be : — ft.

in.

Length on floor .

Extreme width on floor

Height of stem .

„ „ stern .

Length of fore-deck

« 7

„ „ after-deck .

Greatest width of cockpit .

This punt is designed for use with paddles. The gunner, when setting up to fowl, lies with his face downwards, his arms reaching through the shutter openings, and across the side decks, and propels himself by means of a short paddle held in either hand. The paddles are kept always under the water, where they are feathered for the forward stroke. When within extreme range, he, if proceeding in the usual manner, releases his hold of the left-hand paddle — both paddles are attached with cords to the

' If to carry a gun weighing not more than 80 lbs. the punt may be 17 ft. over all, and 16 ft. 3 in. on floor, other dimensions remaining identical.

gunwale— and uses the free hand to keep the aim of the gun true, while, with the right-hand paddle, he endeavours still further to decrease the distance between himself and the fowl. At the slightest sign of suspicion on the part of the birds he can, in still water, the trigger string being held in the left hand, take the shot instantly. If he reaches short range he abandons the second paddle and uses both hands to the gun. In shallow water the punt is propelled by pushing the paddles on the bottom.

A faster punt of the same class suitable for use on sheltered water, and carrying a gun from 60 lbs. to 70 lbs. weight, may be given the following proportions :- ft.

in.

. 17

Length on floor .

Extreme width on floor

Height of stem .

1\

We now come to a single-handed punt for sculling and using a setting-pole, to take a gun of from 80 lbs. to 120 lbs. weight : — ft.

. 18

Length on floor .

. 17

Extreme width on floor

• 3

D ft.

in.

Height of stem .

o

52^

„ „ stern .

o

Length of fore-deck .

„ „ after-deck .

Greatest width of cockpit .

If to carry a gun of not more than loo lbs., the punt may be 2 inches less across decks, and i inch less across floor, other dimensions remaining the same.

This punt is propelled in deep water by an oar sculled in an after starboard rowing-spur, the gunner lying partly on the left side, and his arm passing through a shutter space in the coaming, and in shallows by means of a setting-pole, a short pole used to push against the bottom. Sculling a punt when setting up to fowl is not a favourite method with single-handed punt-gunners who shoot on sheltered waters — indeed in various respects it falls short ot the system of propulsion by paddles. When, however, the width of the punt runs beyond a certain limit, the stretch is too great for paddles to be used with effect, and sculling becomes necessary. The gunner can either fire with his left hand, or bring the handle of the oar inboard and use both hands to the gun. The following are the dimensions given for a punt of the same class in which it is only wished to carry a gun of from 70 lbs. to 80 lbs. : — ft.

in.

Length on floor .

i6

Extreme width of floor

Height of stem .

o

„ „ stern .

o

Length of fore- deck o

3 1 1

When setting up to fowl in a double-handed punt, the puntsman, as the second man is called, lies on his left side and sculls an oar in a starboard spur when in deep water, and in shallows uses the setting-pole. Some fowlers advocate a rudder to a double-handed punt, but not, I think, very many ; a puntsman worthy the name can keep an absolutely true course without one. The following are the dimensions given for :—

A double-handed punt, for paddling, sculling, or using a setting-pole, to take a gun of from 130 lbs. to 170 lbs. weight : — ft.

in.

Length on floor .

. 22

Greatest width of floor

II Height of stem

Si

„ „ stern . .

Length of fore-deck .

„ „ after-deck .

Greatest width of cockpit .

D 2

If required only for a gun weighing 130 lbs. or less, the length may be 21 ft. 8 in., the width of floor 2 ft. 10 in. and the width across deck 3 ft. 7 in., other dimensions remaining the same. The following is : —

A small double punt to take two fairly light men and a gun of from 80 lbs. to 100 lbs. : —

Total length Length on floor .

Floor at widest .

Width across deck Height of stem .

„ „ stern .

Length of fore -deck ft.

in.

Light punts, in which not a few gunners Hke to knock about on the coast, for use with a heavy shoulder-gun, follow closely in most cases the dimensions long ago laid down by Colonel Hawker. These dimensions are : — ft.

in.

Length from stem to stern .

„ at bottom

Width amidships

„ „ at bottom

• 3

Depth at bow

„ astern

I

I

Spring fore and aft

This is a very safe punt for the coast, but of greater length and width of beam than are really necessary on sheltered water. It has a fore-deck, and coaming of ordinary height. Armed with a heavy double gun, which lies ready in rests on the deck, the wild-fowler may often do considerable execution.

When looking for fowl, a punt may be propelled either by oars or paddle — or of course may be sailed if the gunner cares for a sail and the wind allows. Paddling is preferable to rowing except against the current, as the position in the punt allows a constant look-out to be kept.

Not so very many years ago it was the almost universal custom to decry breech-loading swivel-guns. They were heavy, their shooting was not equal to that of muzzle-loaders of equal bore and length of barrel, there was no advantage in having a gun which could be charged more quickly than the muzzle-loader; they were very costly into the bargain, and being complicated they might very easily go wrong ; whereas the muzzle-loader, simplicity itself, could never fail its user and would last him a lifetime. All this is still urged by many professional wild-fowlers. The breech-loading swivel-gun must always be costly compared with the muzzle-loader, but objections on the score of weight and performance, however sound at one time, are no longer important ; the modern breech-loader weighs but a trifle more than the muzzle-loader, and is fully equal to it in penetration. The claim that, as it makes no practical difference whether a punt-gun can be loaded in five seconds or five minutes, the breech-loader is only equal to the muzzle-loader is valid in a broad view of the fact that there are long intervals between shots on the water. But the broad view does not embrace the question of convenience. Every wild-fowler who has used a muzzle-loading swivel-gun knows what this means; the sponging-out process and its dirt, the drizzle interfering with everything, the difficulties set up by wind or swell. Then there is the drawing and changing of the shot-charge when, let us say, the gunner, about to launch a forlorn hope at brent, happens to descry a heavy bunch of teal lighting near at hand : the breech-loader possesses the very great advantage that when any kind of fowl are sighted the gunner can immediately and with no inconvenience insert a cartridge containing shot of a suitable size for use on that particular kind of fowl. Further, the ammunition of the breech-loader cannot be affected by wet, and its ignition under all circumstances is certain. By no sound reasoning can it now be main-

SHodriNG THE DUCK AT SEA tained that the muzzle-loader is equal to the breech-loader.

A swivel-gun, according to the size of the punt and the quality of the sport to be expected, may be anything between a gun measuring 5 feet in the barrel, weighing 50 lbs. and firing a shot-charge of about 4 oz. to one weighing upwards of 200 lbs. with a 9 ft. 6 in. barrel, and capable of shooting 40 oz. of shot with safety and high penetration. A gun which can readily be used in either a single-handed or a light double-handed punt may be a i|-in. bore firing up to i^ lb. of shot. Such a gun is powerful enough for any sport the wild -fowler is likely to encounter on our coasts in these days. The length of the barrel is a little less than 8 feet, the total weight about 100 lbs. A light single-handed punt may be equipped with a ij-in. gun — firing a shot-charge of from fib. to i\ lb. Messrs J. and W. Tolley make a particularly handy and effective gun — bore a fraction over i inch, weight 50 lbs., barrel 5 feet — for use on a fast punt. Large guns for double-handed punts are usually 2-in. bores. Double-barrelled swivel-guns deserve everything that has ever been said in their favour, but they are heavy and very costly and are seldom used.

The ' wild-fowler has small scope for choice in the mounting and breeching of his swivel-gun. There is little, if any, practical difference, A swivel-gun mounted in the simplest style — as the very large majority of guns are — lies in a plain crutch, the shank of which turns in a socket in the gun-beam, a curved beam at the after-end of the fore-deck. The elevation of the gun is regulated to the requirements of the shot by means of the gun-rest, which is pushed forwards or drawn towards the gunner according to whether the gun needs laying with less or greater elevation. The gun-rest, like a cue-rest in form, has a head measuring about 8 inches across, the head being flat on the top and having two semicircular cavities cut in the under-part. These cavities fit over the breeching ropes, so that the barrel can be moved from side. to side on the rest. The breeching rope passes through a hole in the stem of the punt, and its looped ends are then fitted over the trunnions. The gun is so balanced in its crutch that the gunner can instantly and without effort tip it with one hand for a flying shot. A downward pull of about 6 lbs. on the stock should balance a loaded gun in the crutch. An elevating gear is largely used, and is at certain times a great convenience, as it enables the gunner to take a shot over intercepting ground which could not be taken without it. The boot-jack system of taking up the recoil of a swivel-gun is much written about and not much used. It is satisfactory in the case of guns firing small charges — say up to I lb. of shot, but it can scarcely be said to possess advantages balancing its disadvantages.

The different sizes of shot for use in swivel-guns are an important consideration ; for obviously a charge which will do the best possible on, for instance, a paddling of mallard will fail as suitable shot to use on a bunch of teal. The following (Newcastle sizes) give good, if not the highest, attainable results.

For teal .

For all duck except teal

If wild .

For brent

If wild .

For other geese

If wild

. S.S.S.G

Special powder of coarse grain is used in puntguns.

Though it is impossible by any amount of writing to give a man the knowledge requisite for successful punt-gunning— this can only be acquired by long observation and experience— still it is within the power of a scribe to point out certain things on which to a large extent success depends.

When purposing to set up to fowl, the gunner must assume the prone position before coming near enough to run any risk of giving the birds alarm before he begins to set up to them. In the matter of distance no rule can be laid down ; so much depends upon circumstances. With practice the fowler will know almost instinctively by the look of the birds when he has reached a point beyond which it would be unwise to go ; he may keep on his seat till within 600 yards or so, or he may consider it necessary to lie down when double that distance away. Cutting things too fine is often a fruitful source of disappointment to gunners whose experiences afloat have not been many. Fowl should be approached across wind if possible ; if it then becomes necessary to take a flying shot, the birds, rising against the wind, will offer more vulnerable targets than would be the case if they rose at or from the gun, and a larger proportion of clean kills will result.

Power to gauge distance correctly, or even approximately, from the low position of a gunner prone in his punt can only be acquired by considerable experience. A beginner is likely enough to imagine birds to be only sixty yards away — and to fire at them — when they are nearly double that distance from the muzzle of his gun. Distance is always much underestimated by beginners, who should keep this fact constantly in mind.