duck ague
{{Short description|In hunting, losing mental calm and missing a shot}}
Duck ague, also buck fever or buck ague, is a hunting term for the yips, in which a marksman or hunter, before taking a shot with either a gun or bow in a tense situation, loses mental quietude and misses the shot.{{cite web|url=http://www.museum.state.il.us/RiverWeb/landings/Ambot/Archives/transactions/1901/Stuart-Bennett_20Duel.html|title=The Stuart-Bennett Duel. The First duel fought in Illinois, at Belleville, Indiana, Stl Clair County|date=Feb 8, 1819|access-date=September 4, 2015}}{{cite journal|title=Forest and Stream|volume=85|issue=2|page=587|last=Barrel|first=Double|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gT87AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA587|year=1915}}{{cite book|title=The Donnellys Must Die|last=Miller|first=Orlo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y25YLhtZWrQC&pg=PT208|isbn=9780470675199|date=2010-03-18}}{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/52165729/ |title=About News |access-date=September 4, 2015 |work=The Ireton Ledger |location=Ireton, Iowa |date=April 12, 1912}}
Popular culture
In James Dickey's 1970 novel Deliverance and its 1972 film adaptation, a character suffers from duck ague before shooting a wild deer, after which another character describes the phenomenon, saying "Hell, I've known tournament archers, damn good shots, never out of the five ring. Draw down on a live animal, they get buck ague."{{cite AV media | people=John Boorman (Director) | date=July 30, 1972 | title=Deliverance | medium=Motion picture | location=Los Angeles, CA | publisher=Warner Bros}}
In the final scene of the 1951 film Fort Worth, one character tells another, "Now don't get buck ague."