WILD DUCK SHOOTING, THE EXE ESTUARY, 1857.

 From The Western Times of 3rd January 1857:

"This sport is carried on in a very methodical and business-like manner in the lower reaches of the river, by persons who regard profit before sport.  A watch for the ducks is kept up, and when it is known that a number have arrived in the river, boats constructed for the purpose are launched.  These boats are light, shallow, and broad in the beam, and pointed at both ends.  They bear a swivel-gun, of heavy calibre, loaded with many ounces of shot. 

"The sportsman lies flat in the boat and propels it by means of an apparatus fitted to it astern.  As these expeditions are made at night the boat is painted white to give it the same appearance as water and the sportsman carries a night glass with him to observe the movements of the bird.  

"Having discovered a covey, he approaches them cautiously, and when near enough fires his piece: on such occasions as many as twenty-five birds have been known to be killed with one discharge.  The covey rises and darts away, but by means of a glass their movements are followed, and when they are quietly feeding again, perhaps a couple of hours later, another shot might be had.  But the effect of this wholesale slaughtering  is to make the birds very shy, and to drive them to the upper marshes."

I blog this very methodical and business-like description of wild-duck-shooting on the Exe because several points are new to me.  viz:  that the duck-punts were painted white for camouflage; that the Victorian hunters carried 'night glasses' and that the boats had a crew of one and could be propelled by him or her (a woke-joke!) lying on the stomach and pedalling like billy-o.   

I imagine those, clearly the hoi polloi, who hunted in this way did not consider shooting duck to be a sport so much as a livelihood.