merican Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/americanduckshooOOgrinrich AMERICAN DUCK SHOOTING I Q 03 ^ O -r. < 5 AMERICAN SHOOTING Sj^ George Bird ^rinnell ^yiuihor of PAWNEE HERO STORIES a.nd FOLK TALES ^ BLACKFOOT LODGE TALES ^ THE STORY OF THE INDIAN ^ THE INDIANS OF TODAY, etc. With Fifty-eight Portraits of J^orih American ^y^an^;, Gee^e and DucKj" by EDWIN SHEPPARD aLnd n\in\ero\is Vignettes in the text by WILMOT TOWNSEND 9 O t ■>» Published by Willis McDonald & Company NEW YORK PREFACE. HIS VOLUME DEALS WITH duck shooting, past as well as present, and with the different ways in which the sport has bee?i and is practiced. It tells of an abundance of fowl in the land, not to be seen to-day, nor perhaps ever again. It contains accounts of shooting, often by unwise methods, often to unnecessary excess; of shooting which has reduced the multitudes of our fowl from what they were to what they are. Such accounts may well serve as warnings to us, teaching us now the exercise of a moderation we were too thoughtless to deem necessary in the old days. Since the several methods of duck shooting necessarily grade into one another, there will often be in one ac- count repetition of what has been said in another. This seems inevitable, however, if a clear idea is to be given of each variety of the sport. 976330 4 PREFACE. In the accuracy of the descriptions of the different species of wildfowl every confidence is felt, for they have passed under the eye of Mr. Robert Ridgw ay, the former President of the American Ornithologists Union, zvhose eminence in his chosen field of life work is so well known. I owe him cordial thanks for his kindness in this matter, as well as for various suggestions, looking toward making more complete the technical portion of the book. The book covers — as it should — a zvide range of terri- tory; for a volume on wildfowl shootifig, if limited to the experiences of a single individual, would furnish but an inadequate presentation of the subject for the whole continent. In the endeavor to make the volume justify its title, assistance has been asked from gun- ners whose experience has been longer than mine, or has extended over shooting grounds with which I am not familiar. My friends, Messrs. Wm. Trotter and C. R. Purdy, both duck shooters of long experience, have kindly aided me on different points, and my acknowledgjnents are due to them. The portraits of wildfowl by Mr. Edwin Sheppard, PREFACE. 5^ so well knoivn as the illustrator of Baird, Brewer & Ridgzuays great work and of Mr. Elliofs trilogy of game bird volumes, speak for themselves. The pen sketches drawn by Mr. Wilmot Townsend hardly need be commented on. Mr, Townsend is an en- thusiastic gunner and has devoted much time to study- ing wildfowl in their homes. The drawings which he has made will call up to every gunner of experience memories of a happy past. Mr. William Brewster has kindly permitted me to use the photographs illustrating the nesting of the Golden Eye^ which accompanied his interesting paper on the subject in the Auk. The very useful chart of the duck, in the back of the book, is taken by the kind permission of the author from Mr. Charles B. Cory s Birds of Eastern North America ^Water Birds. G. B. G. October^ igoi. CONTENTS, PAGE Preface » 3 PART I. THE DUCK FAMILY. SWANS 33 American Swan c . . . 34 Trumpeter Swan 36 GEESE AND BRANT 39 Blue Goose 43 Lesser Snow Goose 46 Greater Snow Goose 48 Ross's Goose 51 White-fronted Goose 53 Canada Goose 56 Hutchins's Goose 58 Western Goose 58 Cackling Goose 59 Barnacle Goose 65 Brant 67 Black Brant 69 Emperor Goose 72 7 8 CONTENTS. PAGE TREE DUCKS 75 Black-bellied Tree Duck .....,., , 76 Fulvous-bellied Tree Duck 79 THE TRUE DUCKS. NON-DIVING DUCKS 85 Mallard 87 Black Duck or Dusky Duck 93 Florida Dusky Duck 95 Mottled Duck 97 Gadwall 103 European Widgeon 107 American Widgeon, Bald-pate 110 European Teal 116 Green-winged Teat 118 Blue-winged Teal 122 Cinnamon Teal 126 Shoveller 131 Pintail 134 Wood Duck 139 DIVING DUCKS 143 Rufous-crested Duck i45 Canvas-back Duck i47 Redhead Duck 160 Broad-bill 164 Little Black-head 167 Ring-necked Duck 170 Golden-eye. Whistler 173 Barrow's Golden-eye 178 BUFFLE-HEAD DuCK l8l Old-squaw, Long-tailed Duck 185 Harlequin Duck 189 Labrador Duck. 192 CONTENTS. 9 PAGE Steller's Duck 195 Spectacled Eider 197 Com mon Eider 200 American Eider , 202 Pacific Eider 205 King Eider 208 American Scoter 211 American Velvet Scoter 213 Velvet Scoter 216 Surf Scoter, Skunk-head 217 Ruddy Duck 220 Masked Duck 223 FISH DUCKS ■ 225 American Merganser 226 Red-breasted Merganser, Sheldrake 230 Hooded Merganser 234 PART II. WILDFOWL SHOOTING. SWAN SHOOTING 244 GOOSE SHOOTING 250 On the Stubbles 251 On the Sand-bars 254 With Live Decoys 260 Driving 274 BRANT SHOOTING 279 From a Battery 279 Bar Shooting 294 10 CONTENTS. PAGE DUCK SHOOTING 317 Pass Shooting 317 Shooting in the Overflow 33s River Shooting 335 In the Wild Rice Fields 351 Cornfield Shooting in the Middle West 371 Point Shooting ^jy Sea Shooting on the Atlantic 418 Wading the Marshes 430 Battery Shooting i 433 Shooting from a House-boat 440 Ice Hole Shooting 447 Winter Duck Shooting on Lake Ontario 453 Shooting in the Ice 455 Sailing 460 Stubble Shooting 461 California Marsh Shooting 464 Chesapeake Bay Duck Shooting 472 PART III. THE ART OF DUCK SHOOTING. GUNS AND LOADING 493 How TO Hold 502 When to Shoot , 506 Flight of Ducks. 508 Etiquette of the Blind 510 CHESAPEAKE BAY DOG 515 DECOYS 522 Wooden Decoys 522 Live Decoys 526 Breeding Wildfowl 532 CONTENTS. II PAGE BLINDS. BATTERIES AND BOATS 546 How Blinds are Made 54^ The Battery 549 Skiffs and Sneak Boats 557 Other Craft 573 Ice Work 572 THE DECREASE OF WILDFOWL. CAUSES 582 Spring Shooting 589 Contraction of Feeding Grounds 593 Size of Bags 594 Natural Enemies 59^ Lead Poisoning 59^ Self-denial Needed 603 Batteries and Bush Blinds 605 Night Shooting 607 What Shall be Done? 608 J I • !'■.' r ; ; ., . I ' » • 111' I' •• . 1 .III ■ 1 I ' 1 ! ^ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FULL-PAGE PLATES. PAGE The Canvas-back .... Frontispiece From Audubon's "Birds of America." The Black Duck . . . . . . .63 From Audubon's "Birds of America." The Shoveller From Audubon's "Birds of America,' The Redhead From Audubon's "Birds of America.' . . 127 191 A Golden-eye Nesting Place . . . . . , 255 Photographed by Wm. Brewster. A Prairie Shooting Wagon . . . . . . 509 Goose Decoys on a Bar q;78 14 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PORTRAITS OF SPECIES. PAGE American Swan 34 Trumpeter Swan 36 Blue Goose 43 Lesser Snow Goose 46 Greater Snow Goose 48 Ross's Goose 51 White-fronted Goose 53 Canada Goose 56 HuTCHiNs's Goose 57 White-cheeked Goose 57 Cackling Goose 59 Barnacle Goose 65 Brant 67 Black Brant 69 Emperor Goose 72 Black-bellied Tree Duck 76 Fulvous-bellied Tree Duck 79 Mallard 87 Black Duck or Dusky Duck 92 Florida Dusky Duck 95 Mottled Duck 97 Gadwall 103 European Widgeon 107 American Widgeon, Bald-pate no European Teal 116 Green-winged Teal ■: 118 Blue-winged Teal 122 Cinnamon Teal 126 Shoveller 131 Pintail 134 Wood Duck 139 Rufous-crested Duck 145 Canvas-back Duck 137 Redhead Duck 160 Broad-bill 164 Little Black-head 167 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 15 PAGE Ring-necked Duck 170 Golden-eye, Whistler i73 Barrow's Golden-eye • 178 BUFFLE-HEAD DuCK l8l Old-squaw, Long-tailed Duck 185 Harlequin Duck 189 Labrador Duck 192 Steller's Duck I95 Spectacled Eider 197 Common Eider 200 American Eider 202 Pacific Eider 205 King Eider 208 American Scoter. , 211 American Velvet Scoter 213 Velvet Scoter 216 Surf Scoter, Skunk-head 217 Ruddy Duck 220 Masked Duck 223 American Merganser 226 Red-breasted Merganser, Sheldrake 230 Hooded Merganser 234 GENERAL ILLUSTRATIONS. A Canada Special 281 The Battery Rigged. Facing page 434 Swivel Guns from Spesutia Island, Facing page 435 Plan of Single Battery 551 Plan of Double Battery 553 Sneak Boat 558 Nee-pe-nauk Boat 560 LoYD Boat 561 Sassafras Dug-out 562 Mexican Cypress Pirogue 563 w i6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Wolf River Canoe 563 Bob Stanley Boat 564 Senachwine Iron Skiff 565 Hennepin Duck Boat 566 Monitor Marsh Boat 567 De Pere Red Cedar Boat 567 Mississippi Scull Boat 568 Koshkonong Flat Boat 569 Koshkonong Monitor 569 Tolleston Boat 570 North Canoe 571 Fifty Vignettes in Text. Chart of Duck Bound in with Back Cover. ^- S)\cJ»)i".i^ ^r^sJEsr~Z.=ris— r:i~.^-::3^-=i— ' AMERICAN SWAN. Cygnus columbianus (Ord), The common swan is slightly smaller than the trumpeter, but is colored like it, except that on the naked lores, just before the eye, there is a spot of yel- low. This, however, is not invariably present, and is usually lacking in the young birds. The tail feathers are 20 instead of 24, and this with the fact that the nostrils open half way down the bill (instead of being in the basal half, as in the trumpeter swan), will al- ways serve to distinguish the two. The young are gray, with a pink bill, which later turns white, and finally black. As the young grow 34 AMERICAN SWAN. 35 older, the body becomes white, then the neck, and last of all the head. During the autumn, winter and spring this swan occurs in greater or less abundance all over the United States, occasionally being found as far south as Flor- ida. It is rarely seen, however, off the New England coast. Its breeding grounds are in Alaska, and Dr. Dall reported it common all along the Yukon, and says that it arrives with the geese about May ist, but ap- pears coming down the Yukon instead of up the stream. It breeds in the great marshes, near the mouth of that river. This species is said to be much more common on the Pacific than on the Atlantic coast, in winter resorting in great numbers to lakes in Washington, Oregon and portions of California, where it is often found mingled with the trumpeter swan. It is common in winter on the South Atlantic coast, being usually abundant in the Chesapeake Bay and in Currituck Sound and to the southward. Congregating in great flocks, its snowy plumage and musical call notes are pleasing features of this wide water. Few swans are killed, and the old- time gunners declare that swans are as numerous as they ever were, or are even increasing. The whooping swan of Europe (Cygnus cygnus) is supposed to occur in Greenland, and is therefore given in the ornithologies as a bird of America. It has not. been taken on this continent. It is white in color, and has the bill black at the tip, with the lores and basal portion of the bill yellow. TRUMPETER SWAN. Cygnus buccinator (Rich.). The plumage of the trumpeter swan is white throughout; the naked black skin of the bill extends back to the eyes, covering what is called the lores, and the bill and feet are wholly black. The tail feathers are twenty-four in number, and this character will dis- tinguish it from our only other swan, the species just mentioned. The bill is longer than the head, and the bird measures about five feet in total length. The spread of wings is great, sometimes ten feet. Audu- bon records a specimen which weighed 38 pounds. The young are gray, the head often washed with TRUMPETER SWAN, S7 fusty, but grow whiter as they advance in years. The ,gray of the head and neck is the last to disappear. In the young the bill is flesh color at the base, dusky at tip ; feet gray. The trumpeter swan is a western species, and is scarcely found east of the Mississippi River. Formerly it bred over much of the western country, though un- doubtedly most of the birds repaired to the far North to rear their young. Many years ago I found it breeding on a little lake in Nebraska, and I have seen it in summer on the Yellowstone Lake, in Wyoming. The nest is built on the ground, and the eggs are white lor cream color. In agreement with what is known of the trumpeter ;swan in the United States, its breeding grounds in the North appear to be inland. Explorers give the Hud- son's Bay as one of its resorts, where it is said to be one of the earliest migratory birds to arrive. It breeds on the islands and in the marshes, and on the shores of the fresh water lakes, and is said to lay from five to seven eggs. It is stated also that it is monogamous, and that the mating is for life. During the period of the molt, when the swans are unable to fly, they are eagerly pursued by the Indians, not always success- fully, since they are able to swim and to flap over the water as fast as a canoe can be paddled. The swan breeds also in the barren grounds on the head of the Fraser River, and at various points on the Mackenzie River ; it has been reported also from Norton Sound. The note of the trumpeter, from which it takes its 38 DUCK SHOOTING. name, is loud and resonant, and so closely resembles that of the sandhill crane that it is not always easy to distinguish the two apart. Authors connect the great power and volume of the trumpeter's voice with the curiously convoluted windpipe of the species. The young birds are very good eating, while the older ones, as a rule, are very tough and hardly edible. 4f GEESE AND BRANT. SUB-FAMILY AnsenncB. The geese stand midway between the swans and the ducks in size and general appearance, though their ac- tual affinities are not these, the swans and ducks being more nearly related structurally than is either group to the geese. From the swans the geese may be distin- guished by their smaller size and shorter neck, by hav- ing the lores, or space between the eye and bill, feath- ered instead of naked, and the bill proportionately shorter, deeper and much less broad, in some forms ap- proaching a conical shape. They differ from the ducks in their greater size, longer necks and legs, and usually in the shape of the bill, which is relatively stouter and less broad than in most ducks. An important difference is seen also in the tarsus, or naked portion of the leg, between the joint just where the feathers end and that below, where the toes spread out. In the geese this tarsus is covered with a naked skin, marked with small divisions like the meshes of a net, while in the ducks the front of the tarsus is covered by overlapping plates which are termed scales or scutellse. Thus in the geese the tarsus is said to be reticulate; in the ducks it is scu- tellate. In all our species the sexes are alike, but they are very 40 DUCK SHOOTING. different in some South American and Old World species. In the sub-family are included the dozen species and sub-species of geese found in North America. They are divided into four genera, two of which contain a single species each, the others several each. One genus is almost confined to Alaska, while another has a gen- eral distribution in the Northern Hemisphere. The snow goose and its forms and the blue goose have a wide range, while little is known about that of Ross's goose. The dark-colored or gray geese, included in the genus Branta, are very abundant along both coasts of the continent, yet are by no means lacking in the in- terior. They include the common Canada goose, with its forms, and the barnacle and brant geese. The brant and its Western relative, the black brant, are chiefly maritime in habit, and are seldom found in the interior. On the other hand, the snow goose, and some of its forms, are regular visitants to certain points on the At- lantic coast. A few years ago a flock of these birds was always to be found in winter in the mouth of the Dela- ware River. Stray birds are sometimes seen on the New England coast and on Long Island. On the beach which lies outside of Currituck Sound a flock of five hundred or a thousand of these birds is found each win- ter. The gray geese, so called, all have the bills, feet, head and neck black. There are patches or touches of white about the cheeks or throat, whence they have been called cravat geese; the upper parts of the body are dark gray GEESE AND BRANT, 41 and the belly and tail coverts white. The white- fronted goose, genus Anscr, is much paler gray, has the bill and feet pink, and has no black except spots on breast and belly. In the genus Chen three forms are pure white^ except for the quill feathers of the wings, which are black. All have the head white in adult plumage. Philacte, the Alaska type, is grayish or bluish in color, variously marked with white. The North American geese are birds of powerful flight, non-divers, well adapted for progression on the land, usually breeders in high latitude, but wintering in open waters. Some are large birds, while others are smaller than some of the ducks, the weight in different species varying from 1 5 to 3 pounds. They feed almost altogether on vegetable matter, largely grass and aquatic plants ; and sometimes, after feeding for a time on the roots of certain sedges and other water plants, their flesh becomes very unpalatable from the strong flavor given it by this food. Geese are noisy birds, the voice of the smaller ones being shrill and cackling, while the cry of others, like the common Canada goose, is sonorous and resonant. Many years ago the geese, during the spring and autumn migration, were so enormously abundant in portions of Minnesota and in California that they did a vast amount of damage by eating the young wheat just appearing above the ground. In those days it was pos- sible to approach quite close to them on horseback, and the rider, having gotten as near to them as practicable, would charge upon the feeding flock, get among them 42 DUCK SHOOTING. before they could rise out of reach, and knock down several with a short club which he carried in his hand. It may be questioned whether this method of killing geese has been employed for a long time. In more re- cent years it is said to have been necessary for the Cali- fornia ranchers during the migrations to employ armed men, whose business it was to ride about, shooting with rifles at the feeding flocks and endeavoring to keep them constantly on the wing. BLUE GOOSE. Chen ccerulescens (Linn.). In the adult the head and upper part of the neck are white ; the rest of the neck, breast, back and rump blu- ish, or brownish-blue, many of the feathers with paler edges; wing light bluish gray; secondaries blackish, edged with white; primaries black, fading to gray at the base; tail brown, white margined; under parts brownish gray and white, sometimes mostly white, and upper and under tail coverts white, or nearly so. The bill is pale pink, with white nail and a black line along the margin of each mandible. The legs and feet are pink or reddish. 43 44 DUCK SHOOTING, The young resemble the adult, but have the head and" neck grayish brown. The length of this goose is about 28 inches ; the wing measures 16. Like many others of our inland water fowl, this goose often has the plumage of head, neck, breast and belly stained with rusty orange, as if soiled by iron rust. The blue goose is an inhabitant of the interior, rang- ing from the Hudson's Bay district south along the Mississippi Valley to the Gulf of Mexico. It is not found on either the Atlantic or Pacific coast, except that in a few cases it has been taken on the extreme northern coast of Maine. Little or nothing is known* about its breeding habits, though the Eskimo and In- dians are authority for the statement that it breeds in the interior of Labrador; and the occurrence of the species in Maine would seem to lend color to this story. Moreover, Mr. G. Barnston, in his paper on the Geese of Hudson's Bay, states that in the migration, the blue goose crosses James Bay, coming from the eastern coast, while at the same time the snow goose makes its appearance coming from the north. This species was long thought to be the young of the snow goose, and was so figured by Audubon, appearing on the same plate with that species. Occasionally speci- mens are found which have considerably more white on them than is given in the description above, but on the whole, it seems to be very well established that the species is a valid one. The color of the head and upper neck varies somewhat with age, the white of these parts. BLUE GOOSE. 45 growing purer and less intermingled with dark feathers as the bird grows older. This is one of the so-called brant of the Mississippi Valley, and is known by a number of names, among which are blue brant, bald-headed goose, white-headed goose, oie bleu and bald brant. Being confined to the inland districts of the country, it is shot chiefly on the stubbles or the sand bars or in corn fields. .sfe=^ ,. ^i^4^. - ^4:*k,, s^" LESSER SNOW GOOSE. Chen hyperhorea (Pall.), The adult is entirely white, except the primaries, or quill feathers of the first joint of the wing, which are black, changing to ash gray at the base. The bill is dark red, with black line along the margin of man- dibles; the nail white; the legs and feet red; length, about 25 inches; wing, 15 1-2. In the young the head, neck and upper parts are pale grayish, with the wing coverts and tertiary feathers brown, edged with white. The primaries are black, and the rest of the upper parts white. The bill and feet are dark. The true snow goose is a bird of Western distribu- tion, reaching from the Mississippi Valley westward to 46 LESSER SNOW GOOSE. 47 the coast, and as far south as Texas and Southern Cali- fornia. It, nevertheless, occurs sometimes on the At- lantic coast, and I have known of its being killed on Long Island. It is perhaps the most abundant goose found in California, and occurs in large numbers all over the country from the valley of the Mississippi west to the Rocky Mountains, where it is often associated with the larger snow goose, to be described laten On the plains of Montana, near the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, they are abundant, and when they first ar- rive are quite gentle, so that I have often ridden on horseback within easy shooting distance of them, al- though a man on foot would not have been permitted to approach so near. In the Hudson's Bay district both forms of snow goose are abundant, and in old times used to form an important article of subsistence for the Hudson's Bay posts. Of late years, however, they have become so scarce that this source of food supply can no longer be depended upon. While the flesh of both the snow geese is highly es- teemed by some people, I have never considered it de- sirable. Usually it has a strong taste of sedge, so pro- nounced as to be, to some palates, very disagreeablCo GREATER SNOW GOOSE. Chen hyperhorea nivalis (Forst.). Precisely similar in all respects to the preceding, but larger. While the length of C. hyperhorea is about 2$ inches, with a wing 15 1-2 inches, that of the present sub-species is 34 inches, with a w^ing over 17 inches. The two forms are often found associated together^ and it is frequently difficult to determine to which one a bird belongs. The snow geese differ from many of their fellows in feeding largely on the land. They walk about much as do the domestic geese, nipping the grass and such other herbs as please their taste, and resort to the water chiefly for resting. 4» GREATER SNOW GOOSE. 49 The nest of the greater snow goose, as described by . Mr. Macfarlane, consists merely of a hollow or depres- sion in the soil, lined with down and feathers. The -eggs are large and are yellowish- white. All these interior geese, such as the blue goose and all the white geese, are known among the Indians and Hudson's Bay people of the north as wavies, the blue goose being called the blue wavy, the snow goose the large wavy, and Ross's goose the small wavy. The larger snow goose is common in Alaska. They do not breed in the neighborhood of the Yukon, but proceed further north to rear their young. The fall migration takes place in September, and by the end of that month all the snow geese are gone. In summer they proceed as far south as Texas and Cuba, where they are re- ported as abundant. As already remarked, snow geese are seen every win- ter in the mouth of the Delaware, and also on the coast of North Carolina, about Currituck Sound. The spectacle of a flock of these white geese flying is 3. very beautiful one. Sometimes they perform remark- able evolutions on the wing, and if seen at a distance look like so many snowflakes being whirled hither and thither by the wind. Scarcely less beautiful is the i^ight which may often be seen in the Rocky Mountain region during the migration. As one rides along under the waVm October sun he may have his attention attracted by sweet, faint, distant sounds, interrupted at first, and then gradually coming nearer and clearer, yet still only a murmur ; the rid^r hears it from above, before, behind 50 DUCK SHOOTING. and all around, faintly sweet and musically discordant, always softened by distance, like the sound of far-off harps, of sweet bells jangled, of the distant baying of mellow-voiced hounds. Looking up into the sky above him he sees the serene blue far on high, flecked with tiny white moving shapes, which seem like snowflakes drifting lazily across the azure sky; and down to earth, falling, falling, falling, come the musical cries of the little wavies that are journeying toward the south land. They pass, and slowly the sounds grow faint and fainter, and the listener thinks involuntarily of the well- known lines : Oh, hark, oh, hear ! how thin and clear, And thinner, clearer, farther going ! Oh, sweet and far from cliff and scar The horns of Elfland faintly blowing ! These birds and Ross's geese often stop to rest and feed on the Montana plains during their migration. I have more than once killed them with a rifle at St. Mary's Lake in the late autumn, and have started them from the little prairie pools, where they were feeding on a small farinaceous tuber, which is the root of some water plant. ROSS'S GOOSE. Chen rossii ( Cassin ) . In color the plumage of the little Ross's goose is precisely similar both in adult and young to that of the larger snow geese; that is, pure white, except for the primaries, which are black, becoming ash color at the base. The bill and feet are red; the nail white. The base of the bill is usually covered with wart-like ex- crescences, or is wrinkled and roughened. There is great difference in the bills, no two being just alike. The young are white, tinged with gray, the centre of the feathers often being dark colored. Ross's goose is the smallest of our geese, being about 61 32 DUCK SHOOTING. the size of the mallard duck, and weighing from two and a half to three pounds. At a distance it is hard to distinguish it from the snow goose, but the voice is shriller, and the birds rise on the wing more readily than most of the geese, springing into the air and going upward more like mallards or black ducks than like geese. The range of this goose is given in the books as Arctic America in summer, and the Pacific coast to Southern California in winter; but, as a matter of fact, not very much is known about it. It has been taken quite frequently in California in winter, but is nowhere abundant. In Northwestern Montana it is a common fall mi- grant, coming rather later than the snow goose, and being abundant on the heads of Milk River, Cutbank and Two Medicine Lodge creeks through October and the first half of November. A few years ago Mr. Jos. Kipp captured there and partially domesticated no less than nine of these birds, but unfortunately, before the winter was over, all of them were killed by dogs. Dr. J. C. Merrill tells us that this goose is not uncommon in the vicinity of Fort Missoula, and Captain Bendire has taken it in Eastern Oregon in the spring. It is not a bird that is likely to be met with by sportsmen except in the localities referred to, and there it is usually shot by being approached under cover. I have seen it there in flocks of from seventy-five to one hundred, and have known of sixteen birds falling to the two discharges of a double-barreled gun. The flesh of those that I have eaten was delicious. •i'l siiijiiiiiliiiii If WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. Anser albifrons (Gmel.). In the genus Anser the bill is much less stout than in Chen, and the nail, which terminates it, is thinner and less strong. The present species is generally grayish- brown in color, the feathers immediately about the bill being in adults white, bordered behind by dark brown. The head and neck are grayish-brown, darkest on crown of head and back of neck. The body is grayish, many of the feathers being tipped with white. The primaries are black, the rump slate-brown, the upper and under tail coverts white, and the tail grayish-brown margined with white. The under parts are grayish, variously, often heavily, blotched with blackish-brown ; 53 54 DUCK SHOOTING. bill, legs and feet, pinkish; the nail of the bill white; length, 28 inches; wing, over 15. The young closely re- sembles the adult, but lacks the white about the bill, this part being dark brown ; it has no black blotches on the lower parts. The nail of the bill is blackish. The white-fronted goose is found in the northern parts of both the Old and the New World, though the two forms are separated by many ornithologists and made different races. The American bird is slightly larger than that of Europe, but the difference is small, and size is the only distinction. At all events, for the purposes of the gunner, they may be considered a single species. The white-fronted goose is generally distrib- uted throughout this country from the far north to our southern border, but is rare on the Atlantic coast. A specimen was taken recently in Currituck Sound. N. C, but none of the local gunners, knew what it was. The species occurs in Cuba as well as in Greenland. In all the Mississippi Valley region it is abundant during the migrations, where it is known as laughing goose, speckled belly, harlequin brant, pied brant, prairie brant, and often simply as brant. It is abundant also in California, and occurs in large numbers as far south as Southern California. In summer the white- fronted goose is found in Alaska, where some breed, and in great numbers on the islands of the Arctic Ocean. All northern explorers report it as abundant on the Mackenzie and throughout the country bordering the Barren Lands. In America it appears to be gen- erally a bird of western distribution. WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 55 The white-fronted goose feeds largely on grass, and in former times did much damage to the young crops of wheat on the western coast during its migrations. It is said to feed also on berries, and to be seldom seen on the water except at night or when molting. The southward migration is undertaken late in September, and the flocks of white-fronted geese usually make their appearance on the western prairies early in October, when they are often associated with snow geese, in company with which they feed and journey to and from their feeding grounds. The flesh of the w^hite-fronted goose is highly es- teemed, and is spoken of as being more delicate than that of any other goose, except possibly the young of the salt water brant. The nest of the white-fronted goose is usually built on the low ground, near fresh water ponds or marshes, and the six or eight yellowish-white eggs are commonly covered with down when the mother leaves them. ^^' CANADA GOOSK Branta canadensis (Linn.). Of all the so-called gray geese, the most common and t)est known is the Canada goose. Of this there are four different forms — the Canada goose, Branta canaden- sis; Hutchins's goose, Branta canadensis hiitchinsii; white-cheeked goose, Branta canadensis occidentalis; and cackling goose, Branta canadensis minima. Of these the common wild goose and Hutchins's goose are distributed over the whole United States, the latter being chiefly western in its distribution, while the white-cheeked or western goose and the cackling goose are exclusively west^n, although the last named oc- «casionally occurs in the Mississippi Valley. 56 CANADA GOOSE. S7 HUTCHINS S GOOSE. WHITE-CHEEKED GOOSE. 58 DUCK SHOOTING. The Canada goose has a triangular white patch on each cheek, the two meeting under the throat, though rarely they are separated by a black line. The head, neck, wing quills, rump and tail are black; the lower belly, upper and under tail coverts white; the upper parts are dark grayish-brown, the feathers with paler tips, and the lower parts are gray, fading gradually into the white of the belly. The tail feathers number from eighteen to twenty. The bird's length is from 36 to 40 inches, wing 18. The young are similar to the adult, but the white cheek patches are sometimes marked with black, and the black of the neck fades gradually into the grayish of the breast. Branta canadensis hutchinsii (Rich.). Hutchins*s goose exactly resembles the Canada goose in color, but is smaller, and has fourteen or sixteen tail feathers. The length of Hutchins's goose is about 30 inches, wing 16 inches or over. Branta canadensis occidentalis (Baird). The western goose closely resembles the Canada goose, although it is slightly smaller. At the base of the black neck there is a distinct white collar running around the neck, and separating the black from the gray and brown of the body. 'This white collar," Mr, CANADA GOOSE. 59 .^1^ CACKLING GOOSE. Ridgway writes me, ''is a seasonal character, and may occur in all the sub-species. It fades out in summer and reappears with the fresh molt in autumn. Of this fact I had proof in a domesticated Hutchins's goose which my father had for some eight or ten years." The back and wings are slightly paler than in the Canada goose, while the feathers of the breast are perhaps a little darker. The tail feathers are i8 to 20, as in the Can- ada goose; the bird's length is from 33 to 36 inches, wing 18 inches or less. This sub-species is also called the white-cheeked goose. Branta canadensis minima Ridgw. The cackling goose bears the same relation to the western goose that Hutchins's does to the Canada goose, except that the difference in size is much greater. 6o DUCK SHOOTING. The tail feathers are 14 to 16; the length of the bird is about 24 inches; wing- about 14 inches. The coloring is almost exactly that of the western goose. Of these four forms, the Canada goose is the only- one of general distribution throughout North America. It is found from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mex- ico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific; and during the migrations is abundant in New England, as well as over the more sparsely settled parts of the country. On the Pacific coast it is less common tl.an the western: goose, but inland it is found in numbers. The common wild goose is an early migrant, and often passes North while the waters are still sealed in their icy fetters. Soon after its arrival in the North, however, the water becomes open, and the birds mate and separate to select their summer homes. The six or eight eggs are laid in nests, sometimes in the marshes, sometimes on higher land, not far from water, and again on the broken-off stubs of trees, or even in a nest among the branches, high above the ground. The eggs are ivory white, and are carefully brooded by the mother bird. Early in June the young are hatched and taken to the water. Usually they are accompanied by both parents, and at this time, if danger approaches, they follow th^ mother in a long line, imitating her movements, sinking lower and lower in the water as she sinks in her attempt to hide, and finally diving and scattering under the water when she dives. Soon after the young birds appear the old ones begin to molt, and CANADA GOOSE. 6l this is a period of danger for them, many being killed at this time by the Eskimo and the Indians. All along the Missouri River and its tributaries, and by lakes scattered over the great plains, the Canada goose formerly bred in considerable numbers, and twenty years ago broods of these birds were commonly seen during the summer along these rivers and upon the prairies near these little lakes. The settlement of the western country, however, has made such breeding places no longer available, and the geese are therefore obliged to journey further to the North before rearing their young. The wild goose is readily domesticated, and this fact is taken advantage of by gunners, who capture crippled birds, keep them until cured, and subsequently use them as decoys to draw the passing flocks within gun-shot of their places of concealment. Not infrequently the geese breed in confinement, though it is probable this does not take place until the females are three years old. Sometimes such domesticated geese, when tethered out as decoys, escape and swim off to join flocks of wild geese, but as the tame ones commonly cannot fly, they are left behind by the flocks when these move away, and frequently turn about and make their way back to the place where their fellow captives are confined. A case of this sort came under my notice in Currituck Sound in the winter of 1900, when an old gander be- longing to the Narrows Island Club, that had slipped his loops and gotten away, made his way back, after three weeks of freedom, nearly to the goose pen where 62 DUCK SHOOTING. the rest of the stand were kept. The superintendent of the chib had heard the goose calhng for several days and recognized his voice, and after considerable search found him in one of the httle leads in the island. The flight of the wild goose is firm, swift and steady. The birds commonly fly in a V or triangle, though sometimes they spread out into a great crescent whose convexity is directed forward. The alertness and wariness of this bird have become proverbial, and when at rest, either on the land or water, it is particularly watchful and difficult of ap- proach. Geese are exceedingly gregarious, and where a flock is resting on the water all birds passing near them are likely to lower their flight, and after making- one or two circles in the air, to join the resting birds. For this reason, when flying alone or in companies of two or three, the goose may often be called up to wooden decoys by an imitation of its cry. Where geese are abundant it is exceedingly common for the gunners to call such single birds to within gunshot. In windy weather the geese, when their flight obliges them to face the gale, fly low, and often barely top the reeds of the marshes among which they are wintering. In foggy weather, or when snow is falling, they also fly low, keeping close to the water, apparently looking for a place in which to alight. At such times they come to decoys with especial readiness. Sometimes in foggy weather, when flying over the land, they seem to be- come confused and fly about in circles, as if they had quite lost their way. 1-3 c p -g M 1 u < 25 CANADA GOOSE. 63 Hutchins's goose, though so Hke the Canada goose in coloring, differs from it in habits. Its breeding place is further to the North, and is on the coast near the salt water. There their nests are usually constructed in marshes near the sea, but Audubon quotes Captain Ross as stating that they sometimes breed on ledges of the cliffs. In winter this species is found in California and in Texas ; and on the Pacific coast great numbers are killed from blinds, and also from behind domestic animals, trained to approach them gradually, as if feed- ing. Hutchins's goose is common in Alaska, and is re- ported there by all the explorers. Mr. Macfarlane found them also breeding on the shores and islands of the Arctic Sea. Whether Hutchins's goose is found at all on the North Atlantic coast appears to be an unsettled ques- tion. The books and the gunners alike state that it used to be found there, but if it occurs at present it is very unusual. • Like the Canada goose, Hutchins's goose some- times has its nest in trees. A case of this kind is cited by Dr. Brewer, who states that in one instance four eggs of this species were found in the deserted nest of a crow or hawk, built on the fork of a pine tree and at a height of nine feet. The parent bird was shot on the nest. Besides the ordinary book names applied to this species, Mr. Gurdon Trumbull, in his admirable *'Names and Portraits of Birds," quotes Eskimo goose, mud goose, goose brant, marsh goose and prairie goose. 64 DUCK SHOOTING, as well as the general term, brant, which is commonly applied to all the smaller geese. Mr. Elliot says that among the Aleutians this bird is called the tundrina goose. The habits of the cackling goose do not appear to differ at all from those of the Canada goose, but its range is a very narrow one, being restricted during the summer to the Bering seacoast of Alaska, its principal breeding place being the shores of Norton Sound. It does not occur during the breeding season anywhere south of the Alaska Peninsula, the breeding birds from Cook's Inlet southward being the white-cheeked goose. During migration it extends along the Pacific coast as far as California, but the birds seen in summer along the inlets of the British Columbia and Alaska coast are not this species, but the white-cheeked goose. It reaches California in its southward migration about the middle of October, and departs again for the North in April. ^«'- ^ V\N^ '¥' ""i>^wiiv5lK)^^ BARNACLE GOOSE Branta leucopsis (Bechst.). Another species of this group is the barnacle goose {Branta leucopsis), which is entitled to mention here only to complete the list of our wildfowl. It is a strag- gler from Europe, where it is very common. No doubt it regularly occurs in Greenland. A specimen has been taken near Rupert House, at the southern end of Hud- son's Bay, and others in Nova Scotia, on Long Islanc'j and in Currituck Sound, in North Carolina. It is not a bird likely to be met with by the sportsmen, and yet, if met with it should at once be reported, since every in- stance of its capture is of interest. It is a small bird, only a little larger than a brant, and may be known by 65 66 DUCK SHOOTING. its having almost the whole head white. The lores — that is to say, the space between the eye and the bill — the back of head, neck and breast, are black ; the wings and back are gray, the feathers being tipped by a black bar and margined with white. The under parts are pale grayish ; the bill, feet and legs black. The young have the w^hite cheek patches dotted with black, and the feathers of the back tipped with reddish-brown. It seems noteworthy that the few specimens of this bird taken in America differ from specimens from Eu- rope, in being somewhat paler. The barnacle goose breeds in great numbers in Si- beria and Spitzbergen, and it is found in winter in great numbers on the west coast of Great Britain and the north coast of Ireland, In some places in England the barnacle goose has been to some extent domesticated, and has bred in captivity. "V:- vi¥v-■'H'- BRANT. Branta bernicla (Linn.). Two species of brant, known as the brant or brant goose (Branta bernicla), and the black brant (Branta nigricans) , occupy respectively the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of America. Both are salt water birds, and, as a rule, do not venture inland. They are found almost exclusively on tide waters, although stragglers have oc- casionally been taken in the Mississippi Valley. The common brant of the Atlantic coast is common to the Old and the New World. Both these species are small geese, but little larger than Ross's goose, which, as already stated, is about the size of a mallard duck. 68 DUCK SHOOTING. The common brant has the head, neck, breast and fore back black, with narrow touches of white on either side of the neck, just below the head. The upper parts are brownish-gray, much as in the Canada goose, but each feather is narrowly margined with grayish. The under parts are grayish-white, fading into pure white on the belly, the upper and under tail coverts being also white. The middle of the rump and the quill feathers of the wing are blackish. The tail is black, as are the bill, legs and feet. The young is not noticeably different, except that the white touches on the neck are likely to be absent, and white bars cross the wing, formed by the white tips of the secondary feathers. BLACK BRANT. Branta nigricans (Lawr.). The black brant is like its eastern relative, but instead of having the faint white neck touches, it has a broad white collar about its neck, which, however, does not quite meet behind. The general color of this bird is much darker than that of its eastern relative. The upper parts, wings and under parts are dark brown, in ^ sharp contrast to the white belly and upper and under tail coverts. The length is about 25 inches, and the v/ing 12 1-2 inches. The brant goes to the far North to breed, and its nest was long unknown. Captain Fielden found the nest yo DUCK SHOOTING. and eggs in latitude 82 degrees 33 minutes north, and subsequently many others in the same neighbor- hood. These nests were on the beach, near the water. In Greenland Dr. Walker, who found this species near Godthaab, as well as in the mouth of Bellot's Straits, saw nests built in the cliffs which formed the sides of the strait. On the European side of the water the bird has been found breeding in great numbers at Spitz- bergen, where the ground was sometimes covered with its nests. During its migrations the brant appears on the New England coast in October or November, and is found from there south along the Atlantic as far as South Carolina. Its favorite wintering grounds seem to be the coasts of Virginia and North and South Carolina, where it remains in great flocks all winter, unless driven further southward by extremely severe weather. It is a gentle, unsuspicious bird, and is readily decoyed. On the Massachusetts coast it is killed chiefly in spring on the sand bars, to which it resorts for the purpose of sanding. In its more southern haunts it is commonly shot from a battery or a bush blind. Brant do not dive for their food, but feed in the same way as do geese, ducks and other shoal water wildfowl, by stretching the long neck down to" the bottom and pulling up the grass that grows there. It is thus evi- dent that they can only feed at certain stages of the tide. Brant are not uncommon in captivity, and are used in New England as decoys on the sand bars. The BLACK BRANT. yi flocks of migrating birds rarely come up to the land or to points of marsh where there is any opportunity for concealment, and thus few are shot from the shore, ex- cept on the bars. The range of the black brant has already been given. Two or three specimens have been taken on the Atlantic coast, but these were merely stragglers. On the Pacific coast in winter it is found on salt water bays and estu- aries, from the straits of Fuca south to San Diego. They make their appearance in October, and leave again in April. Black brant appear to be very little shot, notwith- standing their great numbers. On their northward migration they usually proceed in small flocks of from twenty to fifty, but at times collect in such immense numbers that great quantities of them are killed. This is especially true if the birds have to wait near the edge of the ice for the northern waters, which they are seek- ing, to become open. The black brant breeds near the Arctic Ocean. Mr. Macfarlane found their nests on little islands in fresh water ponds or in rivers, and saw many others on the shores or on islands in Franklin Bay. The number of eggs in a nest was usually five. In its migration this species follows the Alaskan coast, over the Bering Sea, passing outside of St. Michael's Island, proceeding to Stewart's Island, and thence northward across the open sea to Golofin Sound. They are found in Norton Sound by the middle of May, and breed in this neighborhood in great numbers. EMPEROR GOOSE. Philacte canagica (Sevast.). The emperor is one of the handsomest of the Ameri- can geese. It is a bird of very Hmited distribution, being confined to the Bering Sea and its vicinity, though very rarely specimens straggle southward in winter along the Pacific coast of the United States as far as California. The emperor goose may be known from all the other North American geese by the re- markable form of its bill ; this is extremely short, with a very broad and thick nail, which occupies almost one- third of the length. The tarsus, or naked portion of the leg, between the toes and the joint above, is very short in proportion to the toes. 72 EMPEROR GOOSE. 73 In the adult emperor goose the head and back of the neck are white ; the front and sides of the throat and neck are brownish-black, slightly spotted with white; the tail is slate-color at the base and white at the end ; the rest of the plumage is bluish, each feather having at its end a narrow bar of white, bordered by a crescent- shaped black marking. The secondary feathers of the wing are slaty-black, margined with white; the long- quills black. The bill is bluish or purplish; the nail white, darker at the edges, and the legs and feet bright yellow. The young are similar to the adult, but have the head and neck lead color, sometimes sprinkled with white. All the explorers of Alaska have found this species more or less abundant in that territory. It also occurs on some of the islands of the Bering Sea, as well as on the Commander Islands, on the Siberian coast. Mr. H. W. Elliot tells us that flocks sometimes land on the Pribilof Islands in an exhausted condition, so that the natives run them down on the grass, the birds being unable to fly. Mr. Dall speaks of the exceedingly strong odor of garlic proceeding from the raw flesh and skin, and says that this odor makes the work of skin- ning the birds very disagreeable. With cooking, the smell disappears. The emperor geese breed on the flat, marshy islands of the Alaskan coast, the nest sometimes being placed amid the driftwood, even below high- water mark. Like most other geese, the female covers the eggs with down from her breast. 74 DUCK SHOOTING. When the molting season begins the Eskimo kill these geese in common with others, capturing them by- means of nets set on the marshes, into which the molt- ing birds are driven. At this time the destruction of the birds is very great. This species in Norton Sound is called white-headed goose, while the name applied to it by the Russians is sa-sar-ka, meaning guinea hen, evidently from the col- oring of the plumage. TREE DUCKS. Intermediate between the true geese and the ducks are the so-called tree ducks, belonging to the genus Dendrocygna. Of these, two species are found along our southern border, and occasionally afford some sport to gunners. They are rather duck-like in form, but have very large heads and feet, the tarsus being reticu- late instead of scutellate, like the ducks. In other words, the skin of the tarsus is covered by small scales, looking like a network, instead of by broad, deep scales which overlap in front. This, it will be remembered, is a character of the geese (Anserincu). Moreover, the tarsus in the tree ducks is equal to or longer than the middle toe, instead of being shorter than it. The lower part of the thigh is naked, and the hind toe is extremely long. This group appears to have relationship with the Old World sheldrakes, and with the goose-like genus Chenalopex, rather than with either the ducks or the geese. They are birds of tropical distribution, and in the United States are found only along the southern border. One species is common in the West India Isl- ands. None of them, however, is sufficiently abun- dant to be considered as furnishing gunning, but two of the three species belong in the list of our water fowl. BLACK-BELLIED TREE DUCK. Dendrocygna autumnalis (Linn.). The neck, back and breast are cinnamon-brown, the forehead somewhat paler. Sides of head, throat and upper neck yellowish-gray. At the back of the head a black strip begins, which runs down the back of the neck. The middle of the back, rump, upper tail coverts, belly, flanks and under wing coverts are black ; the ^ing coverts are yellowish, fading into ashy and grayish- white on the greater coverts. When it is closed the wing thus shows a white strip for nearly its whole length. The tail is blackish-brown, and the under parts 76 BLACK-BELLIED TREE DUCK. y^ yellowish-brown. The under tail coverts are white; the bill is red, changing to orange at the base ; its nail is bluish; legs and feet whitish. The young bird re- sembles the adult, but its colors are duller throughout, and it lacks the black flanks and belly ; they are grayish- white, barred with dusky; length, 19 inches; wing 9 1-2 inches. In certain parts of Texas the black-bellied tree duck is not a scarce bird. It is found there in summer and autumn, and at this time of the year visits the grain fields, where some shooting at them may sometimes be had. Its name is well applied, for it perches in the trees without difficulty, and walks about on the branches as if much at home. In fact, it is said to pass the hours of daylight largely in the branches of trees, and to do its feeding and traveling chiefly at night. This duck nests in the hollow trees, and there deposits twelve to fifteen eggs, without forming any nest. When hatched the young are said to be carried to the water in the mother's bill. It is easily domesticated, and when once tamed asso- ciates with the fowls of the farm on perfectly good terms. When tamed it is said to be very watchful, and to utter a shrill call at the approach of any individual or at any unusual sound. In Texas, where the bird is most common, it is known as the tree duck, corn field or long-legged duck, while in Louisiana the common appellation for it is fiddler duck, from the clear call-note that it utters at night when in flight. It frequents the old corn fields 78 DUCK SHOOTING. which have been overflowed, and from such places it may be started in pairs, often giving good shooting. Its flesh is highly esteemed. Some of the local names used in South America and in Mexico are applied to it by reason of its call-note. Mr. Xantus took a single specimen of this duck at Fort Tejon, in Southern California, but this is the only specimen known from that State. In Mexico and Cen- tral America they are common. Dr. Merrill states that these birds reach Fort Brown, Texas, from the South in April. Most of them depart again in September or C^ctober, but some stay until November. FULVOUS-BELLIED TREE DUCK. Dendrocygna fulva ( Gmel. ) . The brown tree duck is a more northerly species than the preceding, and is found in Mexico and northward through parts of CaUfornia and Nevada, as well as in Texas and Louisiana. The head, neck and lower parts are deep reddish-yellow, darkest on top of head, and changing to reddish on the flanks, the longer feathers being streaked with pale yellow ; middle of neck whitish obscurely streaked with black. A distinct black stripe runs from the head down the hind part of the neck. The upper parts are brownish-black, the feathers of the wing being tipped with chestnut. The upper tail cov- 7*^ So DUCK SHOOTING. erts are white ; the belly and lower tail coverts yellow- ish-white ; the bill is blackish, and the feet and legs are slate-blue; the length is about 20 inches; wing, 91-2 inches. The colors of the young are somewhat duller, and the wing coverts lack the chestnut. The fulvous tree duck, known as the yellow-bellied fiddler in Louisiana, and the long-legged duck in Texas, is quite common there at certain seasons. Its habits do not vary greatly from those of the black-bellied tree duck. Like that species, it spends much of its time in fresh water lakes and sloughs, feeding on the grasses that grow there, and it also visits the corn fields at night in search of grain. The flesh of both these species is said to be very de- licious, and is eagerly sought after.* The birds are shot only by being stumbled on or by lying in wait for them as they come into or leave the corn fields. This duck is exceedingly unsuspicious and readily permits approach, so that many of them are killed. When crippled, however, their strong legs enable them to run very fast, and, like all ducks, they are expert hiders, getting into the grass and lying there without moving. The bird is also a good diver, and if it reaches the water is not likely to be captured. It Is said never to be found on the salt water, but confines itself entirely to inland pools, rivers and swamps. *On this point compare Robert Erskine Ross in "California Duck Notes," Forest and Stream, July 26, 1902. THE TRUE DUCKS. The ducks may always be distinguished from their relatives, the geese, by characters already indicated. The tarsus, that is to say, the naked portion of the leg, between the joint where the feathers end and that where the toes begin, is covered in front by broad, overlapping scales, instead of by a naked skin, orna- mented with small hexagonal scales. The ducks are usually smaller than the geese. They are also, as a rule, more highly colored, though this brilliancy pre- vails more in the males of the fresh-water ducks than in the sea ducks. Nevertheless, this is not the invari- able rule, for the males of all the mergansers, and such species of sea ducks as the eiders, the harlequin, the butter-ball and long-tailed duck are extremely showy and beautiful birds. As a rule the ducks have shorter necks and legs than the geese. It has long been known to naturalists and to a few gunners that in the mallard and some other ducks the males assume during the summer a plumage very dif- ferent from that which they commonly wear during the autumn, winter and spring, and not unlike that of the female. This is not generally known, and even by ornithologists has not always been understood. Re- cently, however, in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, for the last quarter of 81 82 DUCK SHOOTING. 1899, Mr. Witmer Stone, in a paper entitled 'The Summer Molting Plumage of Certain Ducks," has dis- cussed the subject in a very suggestive way. Mr. Stone calls attention to the fact that in only one of our ducks — the old squaw — does the adult male pos- sess a distinct winter plumage which is different from the breeding dress, that the old males of all our other ducks remain in the same plumage from the time they arrive in autumn till their departure northward in spring, and intimates that, judging by analogy, we should suppose that since these ducks show no tendency toward a change of plumage when they leave us in the spring, they must retain the same feathers that covered them during the winter until the end of the breeding season, when a complete molt should occur and a new dress be assumed exactly like the one just shed. It is known, however, that this is not the fact, and, as stated, the ''plumage after the breeding season" has been described in some species. The first record of this peculiar summer plumage in the male ducks is found in the supplement to Montagu's "Ornithological Dictionary," 181 3, under the head of "The Pintail {Dafila acuta)." The observations made on some do- mesticated birds are given as follows : "In the month of June or beginning of July these birds commenced their change of plumage, and by degrees after making a sin- gular mottled appearance, especially on the part of the body which was white before, became by the first V\^eek in August entirely of a brown color. The beautiful bronze on the head, the white streak on each side of the THE TRUE DUCKS. 83 neck, and all the white beneath, as well as the elegant scapulars, had entirely vanished, and to all appearance a sexual metamorphosis had taken place. But this change was of short duration, for about the latter end of September one of the males began to assume the masculine attire * * * and by the middle of Oc- tober this bird was again in full plumage." Twenty-five years later the naturalist Waterton de- scribed a similar molt in the male mallard, and as time went on, other species were found to undergo like changes. In Mr. Ridgway's ''Manual of North Ameri- can Birds," a number of species are given as having a peculiar summer plumage resembling the female. Such are the mallard, blue-wing and cinnamon teal, the gad- wall, widgeon, pintail and scaup. On the whole, how- ever, very little is said in the books about this change. Mr. Stone's examination of four species of eider ducks brought back from the Arctic by Mr. E. A. Mc- Ilhenny, and taken near Point Barrow, in the late sum- mer or early autumn, leads Mr. Stone to believe that in all ducks where the plumages of the male and female are markedly different we may expect to find this double molt and a dull summer plumage in the male. He points out that this summer plumage is in no sense a nuptial dress, and that while it may begin to appear before the young birds are hatched, it is not seen until, after the mating season is over, and is distinctly a post- nuptial dress. The change is chiefly restricted to the head, neck, breast and scapulars; in other words, to those parts which are most conspicuously colored. 84 DUCK SHOOTING. A very important point in connection with this sum- mer plumage is that the annual molt of the flight feath- ers does not begin until it has been fully acquired, and that as soon as the new flight feathers have become strong enough to be used, the dull plumage, as well as the remainder of the old plumage, is lost, the molt of the body feathers proceeding in the usual way. In other words, this dull plumage lasts only during the period while the birds are unable to fly, for, as is well under- stood, ducks molt the quill feathers of their wings all at once, and for a time lose the power of flight. Now at such a time a dull plumage would naturally be useful in rendering the bird inconspicuous, and thereby protect- ing it, and Mr. Stone believes this to be the explanation of this curious summer molt. He adds that the feath- ers of this plumage are very poor and loosely con- structed, like the ''first" plumage of young birds, which is only a temporary summer dress. Mr. Stone quotes European authors who have de- scribed eider ducks of different species in this dress, but have called them young males, evidently not appreciat- ing the meaning of the change. He then goes on to describe in detail this summer plumage in four species of Pacific eiders and in the red-breasted merganser, from which it appears that up to July the nuptial dress of the male is usually retained, but that by the latter part of August and in early September this "summer molting plumage," as Mr. Stone calls it, is fully as- sumed. NON-DIVING DUCKS. SUB-FAMILY AnatiucB. As has already been said, the ducks are divided into three sub-families. Of these the first is the AnatincBy or fresh-water ducks. One unvarying character of this group is that it has the hind toe simple, while in all the sea or diving ducks it is lobed, or provided with a loose membrane or flap. The feet of the fresh- water ducks, as a rule, are smaller than those of the sea ducks, formed more for progression on land than for swimming. The fresh-water ducks feed in shallow water, gathering their food from the bottom by stretching down the neck, or by tipping up the body, as do also the geese and the swans. They do not dive for food, though they often do so to escape from dan- ger when wounded. As a rule they feed on vegetable matter, from which it results that their flesh is very palatable. As it is a fact, however, that all ducks are indiscriminate feeders, in cases where the fresh-water ducks have access to animal food their flesh readily acquires an unpleasant, fishy taste. There are thirteen or fourteen species of fresh-water ducks found in North America, most of which are familiar to gunners. Naturalists are by no means agreed as to the proper no- menclature to be applied to the different species in this 85 86 DUCK SHOOTING. group, but for the purposes of this work it will be suf- ficient to take that adopted by the American Ornitholo- gists' Union in its revised Check List of North Ameri- can Birds. It is to be noted, however, that the order in which the species are arranged is not that of the Check List. 4c^'. MALLARD. Anas boschas Linn. In autumn, winter and spring the colors of the mal- lard are those of the common domestic duck, which is its descendant. The head and neck are brilliant metal- lic green, sometimes showing golden and purple reflec- tions, according to the light's reflection. About the neck, below this green, is a narrow ring of white, usu- ally broken at the back. The back is brown, or brown- ish-gray, finely waved with grayish-white, as are the inner scapular feathers, which darken to rich brown on the wing. The speculum, or wing patch, is violet, with metallic reflections, crossed near the end with a black bar, and tipped with a white one. The rump and 87 88 DUCK SHOOTING, Upper tail-coverts are black, and the tail white, each feather being grayish along the shaft. The breast is deep glossy chestnut, and the other under parts gray, waved with narrow black lines. The under tail-cov- erts are black. The bill is yellow-green, with a black nail, the eyes dark brown and the feet orange. The length is about 2 feet and the wing from 11 to 12 inches. The summer dress of the male closely resem- bles that of the female, but is darker. This plumage is assumed in June and is lost again in August, when the winter dress is resumed. The female is colored much as the female of the tame duck; the feathers generally are dusky, with broad, pale yellow or buff edges. On the upper parts the dark color predominates; on the lower, the buff, often almost to the exclusion of the blackish streaks. The wing patch is colored as in the male, as are the bill, feet and legs. The chin is almost white and the throat is buff. No one of our ducks has a wider range than the mallard, which, as has been said, is the progenitor of the common domestic duck. It is found over the en- tire northern portion of the world; and, in America, as far south as Mexico, while in Europe it breeds in Southern Spain and Greece. It is believed to be com- mon throughout Asia, except in tropical India, and it is more or less abundant in Northern Africa. Al- though a migratory bird, the mallard may usually be found throughout its range in winter, provided there is open water, and so a place where it may feed. In MALLARD. 89 many places in the Northern Rocky Mountains, where the thermometer often goes to 30 or 40 degrees below zero, mallards may be found throughout the winter living in warm springs or along swift streams, where the current is so rapid that the w^ater never freezes. Thus it is seen that the winter's cold has little to do with the migration of the mallard — or, in fact, with that of many other ducks — and that, if food is plenty, the birds can bear almost any degree of cold. It is the freezing of the waters and thus the shutting off of the food supply that forces these inland birds to move southward. In the New England States the mallard is not a common bird, but in the Southern States, the interior and California it is extremely abundant. In the northern interior the mallard is shot from early October until the waters close in November, and all through the winter it is abundant in the Southern States. Here it feeds in the marshes along the salt water, in the rice fields and along the sloughs and streams throughout the interior, and becomes fat and well flavored and is eagerly pursued. It comes readily to decoys and if one or more live ducks are tethered with the decoys to call down the wild birds, they are quite certain to respond and to offer easy shooting to the gunner. Formerly the mallard bred in consid- erable numbers within the limits of the United States, though it has never been a common bird at any season on the Atlantic coast north of New York. Yet it used to breed in great numbers in Illinois, Indiana, 90 DUCK SHOOTING. Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota, as well as in the prairies of the further West and about alkaline lakes and pools on the high central plateau. Now, most of the birds proceed further north to breed, and Canada, the Hudson's Bay country and tlie shores of the Arctic Sea are all occupied by it during the nesting season. Dr. Brewer states that ''it has been known in rare instances to nest in a tree, in such cases occupying a deserted nest of a hawk, crow or other large bird.'' The mallard is one of our typical fresh-water ducks. It is rarely or never found on salt water, but, on the other hand, is common on the lagoons along the south- ern Atlantic coast which are brackish. Here it asso- ciates with many other fresh-water ducks and is fre- quently seen flying in company with black ducks, sprig- tails, widgeons and other species. The mallard rises from the water by a single spring, almost straight up in the air, and then flies upward at a sharp angle, until it has reached a height of thirty or forty feet, when it flies rapidly away. Its speed on the wing is considerable and when coming before the wind it is necessary for the gunner to make consid- erable allowance to hit it. When the mallard rises on the water it usually utters several loud quacks of alarm, and when associated in companies, as it usually is, the birds keep up a more or less continuous conversation. When flying, its attention is readily attracted by an imitation of its note, and this call, made either with the mouth or with an instrument known as a duck call, is often used to lead it to observe the decoys. If it MALLARD. 9 1 can be made to see these, it is extremely likely to come to them. This species readily hybridizes with certain other ducks. A hybrid supposed to be mallard and muscovy duck is common. So also is one between the mallard and the black duck, and of these I have killed a num- ber. They bear a general resemblance to the black duck, but the head and neck are much darker and show glossy reflections. Moreover, the crissum or anal re- gion is jet black, as are the upper tail-coverts, and the male is likely to possess the recurved tail feathers which characterize the mallard drake. Many years ago, in Carbon county, Wyoming, I killed a male hybrid between the mallard and pintail. In form it resembles the male pintail, but its head is blackish green, with metallic reflections, almost the color of the male shoveller. Its breast is chestnut and its back much like that of a mallard. The general effect is that of a male pintail with mallard coloring. Perhaps no one of our North American ducks is so well known as the mallard, and yet it has compara- tively few common names. It is called greenhead, wild drake, wild duck, English duck, French duck and gray duck, or sometimes gray mallard for the female. In Canada the name stock duck was formerly common, referring evidently to this bird as a progenitor of the domestic duck. The French Canadians call it canard Frangais or French duck. Mr. Trumbull calls atten- tion to the old but now obsolete duckinmallard, a word supposed to be a corruption of duck and mallard, duck 92 DUCK SHOOTING. being the female and mallard the male. The word is thus the equivalent of duck and drake, it having been the custom, seemingly, to speak of the species by this double name. ,-U^..,- ^■A*akV«*v N^?' BLACK DUCK OR DUSKY DUCK. Anas obscura Gmel. Under the general name *'black duck" are included two species and one sub-species so closely alike that only a careful comparison will distinguish them. They are birds similar in size and form to the mal- lard, but very different in color. The black duck is brownish-black or dusky, all the feathers edged with pale grayish or yellowish. The head and neck are streaked with yellowish. Of this there is least on the top of the head and the hind neck, which are sometimes nearly black; most on the sides of head and throat. 93 94 DUCK SHOOTING. These last are sometimes almost buff, without any- streaking. The speculum, or iridescent wing patch, is sometimes metallic-green and sometimes violet, edged with black. The bill is yellowish-green and the nail dark, while the feet are orange-red, the webs dusky. Length, 22 inches; wing, 11. The sexes are essentially alike. Since the first edition of this book was published, Mr. William Brewster has described {Aiik xix, p. 183, April, 1892) a new form of black duck {A. obscura rubripes). It is slightly larger than the common form, has the dark feathers of crown edged with gray or yellowish, the dai:k markings on foreneck and sides of head coarser and blacker, bill yellow, tarsi and toes bright red. Its distribution is apparently northern and western. f^^^i&^- ^i 'i jZLM^It.^kl'lJ^'^^^i^l^i'^^*^^ FLORIDA DUSKY DUCK. Anas fulvigiila Ridgw. The general color above is brownish-black, as in the black duck, but the feathers more widely margined with yellowish, giving a generally paler cast to the bird. The chin and throat are always plain unstreaked buff, these being finely streaked in the black duck. The speculum is green, sometimes tipped with white, which may then form a bar across the wing. The bill is olive- yellow and there is a triangular spot of black at its base, near the angle of the mouth. The legs and feet are orange-red. The length is about 20 inches and the wing 10. The female is somewhat paler than the male. 95 g6 DUCK SHOOTING. The Florida duck is an altogether Hghter colored bird than the dusky duck and there can be no question as to its specific distinctness nor of the ease with which it may be distinguished if the differential characters are borne in mind. These consist ( i ) in the altogether paler coloration, the under parts being bufif, streaked with dusky, instead of the reverse; (2) the plain buff cheeks, chin and throat, these parts being thickly streaked in the dusky duck; (3) the black spot at base of upper mandible, next to corner of mouth; (4) the green instead of violet speculum. •Vv. % MOTTLED DUCK. Anas fulvigula maculosa (Senn.). The mottled duck resembles the Florida duck in the characters given above, except that the cheeks are streaked instead of plain, the speculum violet instead of g-reen and the general coloration rather darker — mot- tled rather than streaked. It is described by Mr. G. B. Sennett as follows : Top of head blackish-brown, mar- gined with very pale buff. Chin and throat isabella color. Cheeks, buffy white, with narrow streaks of dark brown. Feathers of breast, wings, upper parts and flanks blackish-brown, margined with pale buff. Under parts buffy white, each feather with a broad 97 98 DUCK SHOOTING. blackish-brown mark near the tip, giving a decidedly mottled appearance. Under tail-coverts blackish, with outer margins of inner webs reddish-buff; those of outer webs buffy white. The four middle tail feathers bkckish-brown, the others brownish. Under surface of all tail feathers light gray. The speculum is metal- lic purple, its feathers tipped with white. Length about 19 inches, wing 10 inches. These three forms are so much alike that it is not probable that the average gunner will be able to dis- tinguish them apart. They occupy different regions, and while their ranges probably overlap, it is not likely that the southern forms are ever found much beyond the regions which they are known to inhabit. The dusky duck, better known as black duck, is the commonest of the fresh-water ducks of Eastern Can- ada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the New Eng- land coast, but when it gets as far south as the Chesa- peake Bay and North Carolina it finds there its relative, the mallard, in numbers as great as its own and as- sociates with it on terms of equality. The black duck, while feeding almost exclusively in fresh water, by no means avoids the sea coast. On the contrary, in the New England States it spends most of the day resting on the salt water and only visits the inland streams, swamps and marshes to feed dur- ing the night. In these localities it does not disdain such salt-water food as it may pick up, and in the early morning at low tide I have seen great flocks of these MOTTLED DUCK. 99 birds feeding on the sand beaches and mud flats off Mil ford, Conn., where their chief food must have been the winkles that are so abundant there. The black duck is not common in the interior, though it has been reported from near York Factory. Dr. Yarrow has reported it from Utah, but these birds were perhaps mottled duck {A. f. maculosa). I, per- sonally, have not seen it west of Nebraska, and then only on a very few occasions. The specimens then noted may have been mottled ducks. It is occa- sionally taken in Iowa and Minnesota, but so seldom that most duck shooters do not know the species. Oc- casionally a man, whose experience extends over fifteen or twenty years of gunning there, will say that he has seen a bird two or three times. It has been re- ported as breeding in great numbers about forty miles north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. In mild winters the black duck remains throughout the season in Massachusetts and Connecticut, but sometimes, if the cold is bitter and long-continued, the ice covers its customary feeding grounds, and its food becoming very scarce, it grows so thin that gunners refuse longer to kill it. At such times it sits off shore in the sea, or, if the ice extends very far out from the shore, upon the ice, and almost starves to death. We have once or twice seen birds caught in muskrat traps which were nothing more than skeletons covered b}'' feathers. In New England the black duck is considered one of the most acute of all our fowl and is very difficult of lOO DUCK SHOOTING. approach. They usually refuse to notice decoys, and, owing to their keen senses and constant watchfulness, are not shot in great numbers. The gunners believe that their sense of smell is very keen, and will not at- tempt to approach them down the wind, believing that the ducks will smell them. The black duck rises from the water in the same manner as the mallard and its note is not to be dis- tinguished from the mallard's. In the Southern States, where they feed chiefly on grasses and rice and wild celery, they are very delicious, but on the New Eng- land coast they are sometimes found to be very inferior table birds. In the South the black ducks often congregate in flocks of several hundred, resorting especially to lit- tle flag ponds in the marshes which they especially af- fect. Here they appear to have lost much of the sus- piciousness which they show further north and often come readily to decoys, responding as easily as the mal- lard to the quacking of duck, man or duck call. More than almost any of its relatives the black duck seems to be a night feeder, and all night long its cries may be heard through the marsh ; yet it is, of course, well known that all ducks feed at night, especially when there is a moon, and the very common belief that the black duck does this more than others may be without foundation. The black duck is frequently domesticated and does well in confinement, and it readily interbreeds with the mallard, either the wild or the domestic. Domesti- MOTTLED DUCK. lOI cated birds are frequently used as decoy ^, c-nd wUh great effect. While the black duck breeds chiefly to- the- tiortn of the United States, nevertheless many rear their young in Maine, New Hampshire, New York and even as far south as North Carolina, though there is, of course, a possibility that the birds breeding there may belong to the next species. The nest is usually built on the ground, concealed in high grass or rushes, and the eggs vary in number from six to eleven or twelve. They are grayish-white, with a very faint tinge of green. Mr. Geo. A. Boardman, of Calais, Me., however, re- ports that he once found a dusky duck's nest in a cavity of a leaning birch tree about thirty feet high. The young, from the time they are newly hatched, are ex- pert in hiding, and at the approach of danger make for the shore and conceal themselves among the grasses. The Florida dusky duck, while very similar to the black duck, may easily be distinguished from it if the characters already mentioned are kept in mind. The general differences are much paler color and absence of streaks on the cheeks, chin, throat and fore-neck, be- sides a difference in the markings on the bill. This bird was long considered to be a pale southern race of the black duck, but of late years has been considered a valid species. Its range is a very restricted one and is confmed apparently to Southern Florida. In habits it does not differ greatly from the ordi- nary black duck, except so far as its surroundings ne- cessitate a difference. During the winter it resorts I02 DUCK SHOOTING. for, food to the fresh- water ponds during the day and at ^yeiaing^ flj.es to the shores about the islands, where tlie iii.g.Ut i^ sclent. The birds mate in late winter and early spring and the broods are hatched in April. The nest is placed in heavy grass or vegetation, which is often so thick as to conceal the eggs. Often the nests are placed at the foot of a palmetto or other bush. It is said that many of these nests are destroyed by the burn- ing of the grass, which takes place each year in certain portions of Florida in order to make way for the fresh grass for the cattle. The eggs of this species are said to be similar to those of the ordinary black duck, but are a little paler and not quite so large. It is altogether probable that all the black ducks killed in Florida may belong to this species. The mottled duck described by Air. Sennett as a sub- species of the Florida duck, closely resembles it. The cheeks, however, are somewhat streaked with brown, as in the ordinary black duck, though the throat is un- streaked and the general appearance of the bird is spotted or mottled rather than streaked. The difference in color of the speculum in these three forms of black duck is a real one, and of importance. It denotes the average effect of color independent of changes due to the angle at which the light strikes them. Very little is known about the habits of this sub- species, which appears to be confined to Eastern Texas and Louisiana, and to extend its range north as far as Kansas. MiPnimUn. GADWALL. Anas strep era Linn, The general colors of the gadwall duck are gray, most of the feathers being nearly white, crossed by nar- row bars of black or blackish brown. In the adult male the head and neck are pale brownish-white, thickly speckled with black or blackish-brown. The top of the head and back of neck are often rusty brown and the throat is yellowish, sometimes dotted with brown. The breast and back are buff, or nearly white, marked with dark slate brown or even black bars. The back, scap- ular feathers and sides, white, with cross bars of black ; the lower part of the back still darker, changing to ab- solute black on the upper tail-coverts. The long scap- 103 I04 DUCK SHOOTING. ular or shoulder feathers are fringed with reddish- brown ; the greater coverts at the bend of the wing bright chestnut. Speculum white, edged beneath with velvety black, and with broad patch of same in front, be- tween the white and the chestnut. Belly and under tail- coverts black ; tail gray, fading to white at the edges ; the rest of the under parts white. The bill is bluish- black and the legs and feet yellow, with dusky webs. The adult female is much like the male, except that she is duller throughout and she generally lacks the black of the full plumaged male. Usually there is no chestnut on the wing, but the speculum is white and the bird may be known from any other fresh-water ducks by this character. The young are still more dull in color. Often the speculum is indistinct, but there is usually enough of it, with the bill, to identify the species. Mn Gurdon Trumbull was the first to call attention to the presence in highly plumaged males of a well-defined black ring, extending almost around the neck, between the lighter feathers of the head and neck and the darker ones of the breast. The gadwall duck is distributed over almost the whole northern hemisphere, being found alike in Eu- rope, Asia, Africa and North America. At the same time it is not an abundant bird anywhere, apparently never occurring in large flocks nor even in frequent small ones. In North America, however, its distribution is gen- eral, but is chiefly westward. Still it has been found breeding on the island of Anticosti, in the Gulf of St. GADWALL. 105 Lawrence, New England and Long Island, and to the south of this, generally along the Atlantic coast. A female was captured in Bermuda in 1849. The gadwall is not uncommon in Illinois, Minne- sota and generally through the Mississippi Valley, and formerly bred to some extent over the whole country. It is said to be common in California in w^inter and has been taken on the Pacific coast of Mexico, as well as in British Columbia. Its chief breeding grounds, however, appear to be north of the United States, al- though no doubt to some extent it passes the summer in the high mountains of the main range from Colorado northward. The male gadwall is a very handsome bird, particu- larly striking in his combination of quiet yet effective colors. There are some things about the species which remind one strongly of the widgeon. Often a large flock of widgeons may include a small number of gad- walls, and often the gunner will see from his blind a small flock of birds approaching him, which at first he imagines to be widgeons, but which, when they have come closer, prove gadwalls. It is difficult to understand why the gadwall is so scarce a bird. It is true that in his ornithological re- port of the Survey of the Fortieth Parallel Mr. Ridg- way tells us that he found it by far the most numerous duck during the breeding season in Western Nevada, w^here, in the valley of the Truckee River from the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Pyramid Lake, it outnumbered all other species together. Yet there ap- I06 DUCK SHOOTING. pears to be no region known where it occurs in great flocks, like those better known species with which it commonly associates, as the widgeon and the pintail, and, by comparison with other species, gadwalls are very seldom killed. So far as we know, this bird ought to be on the increase. It seems to differ from most ducks in not being gregarious and in preferring to keep in pairs or very small companies, perhaps made up of the members of a single family. It pays little atten- tion to decoys, and, in my experience, seldom comes to them, although occasionally shot when flying by.* The gadwall has a number of common names, of which two of the most familiar are gray duck, applied also to two other species, and creek duck, which is used along the Atlantic coast. Besides this it is known as speckle-belly, from the dark markings often seen on the under plumage; blaten duck, which is nearly a translation of its Latin name ; Welsh drake and German duck, given by Giraud and probably now obsolete. Its similarity to the widgeon is indicated by its names, widgeon and gray widgeon, used along the southern Atlantic coast, and in England it is sometimes called sand widgeon. The nest of the gadwall is built on the ground and is a mere depression, lined with dried grass or leaves, and sometimes with down. It is usually near the water's edge and well concealed. The eggs are of a pale creamy yellow. *See lengthy correspondence on this subject in Forest and Stream, Vol. Iviii, January and February, 1902. EUROPEAN WIDGEON. Anas penelope Linn. This species, so familiar in the Old World, is a not un- common straggler in North America. It has been killed in so many different places that it is important that it should be described here. In the adult male in autumn and winter the head and sides of neck are bright rufous, almost the color of the head of the male redhead, but without the metallic gloss, or still more like the head of the male green-winged teal. The forehead and crown of head are white, often shaded with rufous, so as to be cream color or even pinkish. The chin is w^^hite ; throat and part of the front of the neck black. Often there is 107 Io8 DUCK SHOOTING. a cluster of small blackish or greenish feathers behind the eye and on the back of the head, and sometimes the sides of the head are minutely streaked with dusky. The breast is purplish gray ; the sides, flanks and back waved with cross-bars of black and white, the effect being somewhat like that of the same parts in the male green-winged teal. The tertiaries, or long feathers growing from the third bone of the wing, are gray on their inner webs and velvety-black, edged with white on the outer. The wing-coverts are white and the spec- ulum or wing-patch brilliant metallic green, sometimes changing to black at the extremity. The upper and lower tail-coverts are black, the other under parts white, the wings and tail brown, the tail often edged with white. The bill is bluish, its nail black, and the legs and feet gray. The length is about i8 inches, wing be- tween lo and II inches. In the female the head and neck are yellowish-red, dotted with black or greenish spots and sometimes the top of the head is altogether black. The general color of the upper parts is brown, the feathers being edged and barred with whitish. The wing-coverts, instead of being white, are merely tipped with white, while the speculum is dull black or even in the young some- times grayish. The under parts are white, as in the male. The female of the European widgeon is not always to be easily distinguished from certain plumages of the American bird, but its bill and general aspect will al- ways identify it as a widgeon, and a specimen about EUROPEAN WIDGEON. 109 which there is any doubt should always be preserved for submission to an ornithologist. This species belongs to the Old World, yet has been found over much of the New. It occurs regularly in Alaska and breeds there, and, no doubt, it is due to this fact that it has been killed in California, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Florida. I have killed it in North Carolina, but it occurs there so seldom that it is not at all known to gunners, and my boatman when he picked up this bird took it at first for a redhead and afterward for a hybrid. Its habits, as observed in the Old World, do not greatly differ from those of the American widgeon, and it is said to be as numerous in certain parts of Eu- rope as our bird is here. During the molting season the male loses his bright colors, which, however, are regained in the early fall. AMERICAN WIDGEON, BALD-PATE. Anas americana Gmel. The male bald-pate has the forehead and crown of the head white, margined on either side from the eyes to the back of the head by a broad band of metallic green, the two bands meeting behind and sometimes run- ning a little way down the neck. The head in front of the eyes and the sides and upper neck are white, thickly dotted with black. The throat is nearly white; the lower neck, fore-breast, back and sides lavender or purplish-gray, sometimes quite rich. The feathers of the sides are cross-barred with fine lines of black ; the back is finely waved with lines of paler, changing to 110 AMERICAN WIDGEON. 1 1 1 distinct lines of blackish and white on the lower back ; the upper and under tail-coverts glossy black; the tail brownish-gray; the wing-coverts broadly white, some of them tipped with black, so as to make a black bar across the wing. The speculum is green and black ; the lower breast and belly white, which extends up on the sides of the rump. The bill is light bluish, with a black tip, and the feet are somewhat darker, with still darker webs. This is the color of the most highly plumaged males, and from this there are all gradations down to the much duller female, which entirely lacks the green head- patch, the large white wing-patch, and in which the speculum is very much duller, being merely blackish, with a white border in front. The general aspect of the female is streaked and speckled with blackish brown and whitish, becoming darker on the breast and sides of body. The upper parts are grayish and the under parts nearly white, the under tail-coverts being barred with black and white. Young males usually have the breast purplish-gray, the speculum brilliant, and traces of white wing-coverts. The bald-pate or widgeon is widely distributed throughout America and is found in winter as far south as Mexico and even Central America. It is an occa- sional straggler to Europe, but is found there only by accident. At the present day it is merely a winter vis- itor to the United States, except in certain portions of the West, where a few widgeons may still breed on the high central plateau or on the flanks of the Rocky 112 DUCK SHOOTING. Mountains. It is not coiainionly found in New Eng- land, yet Mr. Boardman has reported it as found near Calais, Me., and it occurs occasionally on Long Island. Further to the south, however, in Chesapeake Bay and on the coasts of North and South Carolina, it is a com- mon bird in winter, occurring in great flocks and eagerly sought after for its flesh, v/hich is very highly esteemed. The widgeons reach the United States usually in the month of October, and great numbers of them winter in the Southern States. On the Atlantic coast they are constantly found associated with other species of fresh- water ducks, as well as with the canvas-backs and the redheads. It is said that they especially seek the com- pany of the canvas-backs when these are feeding, and that they rob them of the grasses and celery which they bring up from great depths, which the widgeons could never reach. At all events it is certain that they as^ociate with the canvas-backs, and no doubt they feed largely on the leaves of the plants of which the canvas-backs eat the roots. Certain it is that at these times and in these places the flesh of the widgeon is so excellent that it cannot be distinguished from that of its larger and more famous companion. The widgeon is regarded as one of the shyest of our ducks. Of it Mr. D. G. Elliot, in his admirable book on the ''Wild Fowl of North America," says: 'The widgeon is one of the wariest of our ducks, suspicious of everything, and not only is unwilling to approach any spot or object of which it is afraid, but by keeping AMERICAN WIDGEON. II3 Up a continuous whistling alarms all the other ducks in the vicinity and consequently renders itself very dis- agreeable and at times a considerable nuisance to the sportsman. However, its flesh is so tender and palat- able and it is such a pretty and gamy bird that one is inclined to forgive many of its apparent shortcomings. The usual note of this duck is a low, soft whistle, very melodious in quality, and when on the wing the mem- bers of a flock keep continually talking to each other in this sweet tone as they speed along. They fly very rap- idly and usually high in the air in a long, outstretched line, all abreast, except perhaps the two ends are a little behind the center bird, who may be considered the leader. When only moving from place to place in the marsh, and but a short distance above the ground, they proceed usually without any order or regularity, re- minding one sometimes of a flock of pigeons. The pinions are moved with much quickness and the long primaries give a sharp-pointed shape to the wing that causes the birds to be easily recognized. Flocks com- posed of a number of widgeon and sprig-tail are often seen, and the combination is a very unfavorable one to a sportsman hoping for a quiet shot at close range. *'As the birds approach the decoys some widgeon will whistle and edge out to one side, as much as to say, *It may be all right, but I don't like the looks of it,' and he will be followed by another suspicious member. Then the pintails become uneasy and begin to climb and look down into the blind, and the patient watcher sees the flocks too often sheer off to one side and pass by. But 114 DUCK SHOOTING. should there be some birds present, as often happens, which are heedless of all warnings or suspicious utter- ings, and keep steadily on^ with the evident intention to settle among their supposed brethren, then, as they gather together preparatory to alighting and the sports- man rises in his ambush, suddenly the air is filled with darting, climbing birds, who shoot off in every direc- tion, but generally upward as if the flock was blown asunder, and all disappear with a celerity that is aston- ishing, and, to a nervous sportsman, with results that are mortifying." Notwithstanding this watchfulness, widgeons often come very nicely to decoys, and a passing flock, espe- cially if it be small, may frequently be turned from its course by a low, soft whistle and will swing into the de- coys and drop in a series of beautiful curves until they are almost over them. Then, however, the gunner must waste no time in selecting his bird and holding properly on it, for the widgeon is able to get out of danger with considerable speed. This species is extremely common in California, where it is eagerly sought after. In the Mississippi Valley region it is not so abundant nor so greatly esteemed, for there the mallard, on account of its greater size, is preferred. The breeding grounds of the widgeon include the whole of British America and Alaska, but its summer home is rather in the western portion of North Amer- ica and away from the seacoast. The eggs are creamy white in color. AMERICAN WIDGEON. 115 Among the names given by Mr. Gurdon Trumbull, in his excellent work so frequently referred to, are green-headed widgeon, bald-head, southern widgeon, California widgeon, white-belly and poacher. Other names are bald- face, bald-crown, wheat duck and smok- ing duck. ^ \^ EUROPEAN TEAL. Anas crecca Linn. This is a European species, occurring only casually in North America. It very closely resembles the com- mon green-winged teal, but lacks the white bar on the side of the breast, has the black and white markings of the back and sides much heavier, has the inner webs of the outer scapular and sometimes part of the outer webs, white or yellowish, and the forehead bordered on either side by a pale-buff line. The female is so sim- ilar to the female green-winged teal that only an ex- pert ornithologist can distinguish between the two. The European teal is found occasionally in the Aleutian Islands, and it has frequently been exposed for sale in the New York markets with other ducks shot in the 116 EUROPEAN TEAL. 117 neighborhood. The most important distinguishing mark between these two very similar birds is the white bar on each side of the breast, w^hich is so noticeable in our green-winged teal, but absent in tlie European species. in December, 1900, two of these teal were killed near Merrick, L. I., N. Y., by Mr. Sherman Smith. European observers tell us that this teal is abundant over the Old World ; that it breeds in Great Britain and Ireland and is common over Lapland, Russia and Northern Asia. It is readily domesticated. GREEN-WINGED TEAL. Anas carolinensis Gmel. The adult male has the head and neck reddish-chest- nut and a broad band of metallic green on either side, running from the eye to the back of the neck, where the two meet in a tuft. The under side of this green band is margined with a narrow line of bufif; the chin is black; the breast is reddish cream-color, dotted with round or oval spots of jet black. There is a collar round the lower part of the neck; the sides of the breast, back of lower neck and of the body are finely waved with lines of black upon white ground. The back is similarly marked and the lower back is brownish- gray. The upper tail-coverts are dark, margined with 118 GREEN- WINGED TEAL. 1 1 9 white, and the tail feathers gray, edged with white. On the side of the breast, in front of the bend of the wing, is a broad white bar. The tips of the last row of wing- coverts are margined with yellowish. The speculum is black and green, margined with white. The outer scapulars are velvety-black. The belly and a patch on either side of the under tail-coverts are rich buff, the under tail-coverts black. The bill is dark, nearly black, and the feet grayish-black. The length is about 14J inches. The female is brownish, the feathers being gener- ally margined with buff. The sides of head are whit- ish, speckled with brownish. The wing is like that of the male, but the speculum is somewhat smaller and duller. The breast is usually more or less spotted and the under parts are white, with faint indications of spots. The green- winged teal is found over the whole of North America, from the Arctic Sea on the north to the Gulf of Mexico and Central America on the south. It occurs also in Cuba. It is one of the most beautiful of our ducks and is highly esteemed by gunners. Unlike many of our better known fresh-water ducks, the green-vvinged teal is rather common in New Eng- land, as well as in the interior and to the southward, and wherever found it is a great favorite. It flies with astonishing speed, but with great steadiness, and often the flocks are of very great size and fly so closely bunched together that they resemble more a flock of mi- grating blackbirds than of ducks. At such times, if I20 DUCK SHOOTING. they suddenly become aware of the presence of the gunner, the bunch flies apart hke an exploding bomb and the birds dart in all directions and at such a rate that it takes a quick shooting to catch them. On the other hand, if the shots can be fired into this close mass the havoc created is very great; ten, twenty or thirty birds sometimes being killed by the discharge of two barrels. While the green-winged teal is much at home on the water and is a good diver in times of danger, it is also very much at home on the land, over which it runs with considerable speed. Although this species breeds chiefly to the north of the United States, its nests have been taken in Wiscon- sin, Iowa and on the prairies and in the mountains of the West. I have seen it in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, accompanied by young, and I recall one oc- casion in North Park, Colorado, where I spent a very pleasant half hour watching an old female and her young as they busily fed in the narrow stream near where I sat. The mother bird at length discovered me, and though not greatly alarmed, she promptly led her flock of eight tiny young ashore, where, in a long line, with the mother at the head, they promptly trotted into the bushes and concealed themselves. The green-wing is a more hardy bird than the blue- winged teal and is often found on warm springs and streams in the North long after the ice has closed most of the quiet waters. I have seen it in Connecticut in the early winter, when almost everything was frozen up. GREEN- WINGED TEAL. 121 The nest of the teal is commonly placed not far from the water, in high grass or sometimes among a tussock of rye grass, or I have even found it on top of a dry ridge, under a sage brush at quite a long distance from any stream. The eggs are small and apparently a little rounder than duck eggs usually are. The number in a nest varies from ten to fifteen. 4f'-~^^ BLUE-WINGED TEAL. Anas disc or s Linn. The adult male has the top of the head and the chin black ; a white crescent-shaped band, edged with, black, extends from the forehead above the eye down to be- low the bill; the rest of the head is dark lead-color, sometimes with glossy purplish reflections. The long scapulars running back from the shoulder are black, streaked with buff. The back and upper parts gener- ally, dark brown and dull black, spotted, barred and streaked with buff. The lower back is dull brown ; the smaller wing-coverts at the bend of the wing sky-blue, as are also some of the long shoulder feathers. A wide bar of white across the wing, above the speculum, which is green, separates the blue and the green. There is a 122 BLUE-WINGED TEAL. I23 narrow lirxC of white at the extremity of the speculum and a patch on either side of the tail. The lower parts are light chestnut, thickly speckled with black. The under tail-coverts are black, as is also the bill. The eyes, legs and feet are yellow, the latter with dusky markings. The female is always to be known by the blue mark- ings on the wing, though the brilliant green speculum is often wantingo The chin, throat and base of the bill are white, marked with blackish, and the head and neck streaked and speckled with dusky brown. The other parts are dark brown, speckled with dusky brown. The bird is slightly larger than the green-winged teal. The blue-winged teal is often called summer teal, and this gives a hint as to one of its habits. It is apparently a bird of more southern distribution than the other teals and is almost the earliest of the migrating ducks to make its appearance. The first to arrive are com- monly found on our streams in late August or early September, and persons who are pushing through the marshes in search of rail very frequently start little bunches of blue- wings from the open places. It may be imagined that such birds have not come from a great distance. Indeed, the blue-winged teal breeds at many points in the West, and would do so more frequently were the birds permitted to make their northward mi- gration without being disturbed by gunners. The blue-wing is common througliout Eastern Amer- ica, but in the West its place is chiefly taken by the cin- namon teal, a closely related species. In its northward 124 DUCK SHOOTING. migrations the blue-winged teal is found summering on the Great Slave Lake, and Mr. Dall tells of having seen it on the Yukon, and it has been reported from other points in Alaska. It breeds also in Northern New Eng- land, as well as near the prairie sloughs of some of the States of the Central West. The nest is placed on the ground, among reeds and grasses, and is usually, but not always, near the water. It is lined with down from the mother's breast, and when she leaves the nest she covers the eggs with this down and over it places more or less grass. The number of eggs is said to be from eight to twelve. During the winter these birds reach Mexico and Central America and are commonly found in Florida and the Gulf States. They feed in great numbers in the southern rice fields, where they are reported to be caught in great numbers by means of traps set by the negroes. Teal are abundant in the low country about the mouth of the Mississippi, where they are known to the Creoles as printannierre and autonnierre, according to the season in which they are seen. The teal frequently travel in very large flocks, and the speed wdth which they move and the closeness with which they are huddled together have become proverbial among gunners. They come up readily to decoys and not infrequently a large flock may come in without warning to a heedless gunner and drop down among his stools before he sees them. When he stands up to shoot, the teal leave the water as the mallard does, by a single spring, and dart away in all directions, coming BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 125 together again and going on in a close bunch. If a flock is seen flying by, they may sometimes be attracted by a soft, lisping note, and if they see the decoys they are likely to drop in among them. The blue-winged teal is fond of running about over mud flats and sifting them for food, and in localities where they are abund- ant a place such as this is one of the very best in which to tie out for them. As with the green-wing so with this species — great numbers may be killed by the single discharge of a gun, provided it is properly aimed. Audubon speaks of having seen eighty-four birds killed by the single dis- charge of a double-barreled gun. CINNAMON TEAL. Anas cyanoptera Vieill. In the adult male the top of the head is blackish- brown, while the rest of the head, the neck and lower parts are bright chestnut. This color grows darker on the belly, until it is quite black on the under tail-coverts. The scapulars, or shoulder feathers, and a part of the back, are chestnut, the feathers having paler edges and the long ones a buff central stripe ; these are also barred with black. The smaller wing-coverts and the outer webs of some of the scapulars are sky-blue. The middle coverts are dark, tipped with white, and the speculum is •dark metallic green. The tail is blackish, the bill is black, the eyes yellow or orange and the feet are bright yellow, with touches of dusky. The female is very much 126 '^ c -^S^ CINNAMON TEAL. 1 27 like the female blue-winged teal, but is larger and some- what more richly colored. The belly is usually dis- tinctly spotted. Length, 17 inches; wing, 7 J inches. The cinnamon teal is a western species. It is rarely found as far east as the Mississippi Valley, though it has been taken in Florida, but such birds are mere accidental wanderers. The cinnamon teal becomes abundant after the main Continental Divide is crossed and is a common breeder and migrant all through the Rocky Mountains and in California. In summer it is found as far north as the Columbia River, and probably breeds freely all through the Western United States, I have found its nest in Wyoming placed under a small sage bush, thirty or forty yards from a little mountain stream that was nearly dry. It had eleven eggs, ivory-white in color, and there was no down in the nest nor any appreciable lining. In his account of the cinnamon teal, published in the *'Birds of the Northwest," Dr. Coues paints one of those charming word pictures which make his writings such delightful reading as well for sportsmen as for naturaHsts. He says of it : *1 never think of the bird without recalHng scenes in which it was a prominent figure. I have in mind a picture of the headwaters of the Rio Verde, in November, just before winter had fairly set in, although frosts had already touched the foliage and dressed every tree and bush in gorgeous colors. The atmosphere showed a faint yellow haze and was heavy with odors — souvenirs of departing flowers. The sap of the trees coursed sluggishly, no 128 DUCK SHOOTING. longer lending elastic vigor to the limbs, that now cracked and broke when forced apart; the leaves loosened their hold, for want of the same mysterious tie, and fell in showers where the quail rustled over their withering forms. Woodpeckers rattled with exultation against the resounding bark and seemed to know of the greater store for them now in the nerveless, drowsy trees that resisted the chisel less stoutly than when they were full of juicy life. Ground squirrels worked hard, gathering the last seeds and nuts to increase their win- ter's store, and cold-blooded reptiles dragged their stif- fening joints to bask in sunny spots and stimulate the slow current of circulation before they should with- draw and sink into torpor. Wildfowl came flocking from their northern breeding places — among them thousands of teal — hurtling overhead and plashing in the waters they were to enliven and adorn all winter. "The up)per parts of both forks of the Verde are filled with beavers that have dammed the streams at short intervals and transformed them in some places into a succession of pools, where the teal swim in still water. Other wildfowl join them, such as mallards, pintails and green-wings, disporting together. The ap- proach to the open waters is difficult in most places from the rank growths, first of shrubbery and next of reeds, that fringe the open banks ; in other, places, where Ihe stream narrows in precipitous gorges, from the al- most inaccessible rocks. But these difficulties over- come, it is a pleasant sight to see the birds before us — perhaps within a few paces if we have very carefully CINNAMON TEAL. 1 29 crawled through the rushes to the verge — fancying themselves perfectly secure. Some may be quietly pad- dling in and out of the sedge on the other side, daintily picking up the floating seeds that were shaken down when the wind rustled through, stretching up to gather those still hanging or to pick off little creatures from the seared stalks. Perhaps a flock is floating idly in mid- stream, some asleep, with the head resting close on the back and the bill buried in the plumage. Some others swim vigorously along, with breasts deeply immersed, tasting the water as they go, straining it through their bills to net minute insects, and gabbling to each other their sense of perfect enjoyment. But let them appear never so careless, they are quick to catch the sound of coming danger and take alarm ; they are alert in an in- stant ; the next incautious movement or snapping of a twig startles them ; a chorus of quacks, a splashing of feet, a whistling of wings, and the whole company is off. He is a good sportsman who stops them then, for the stream twists about, the reeds confuse and the birds are out of sight almost as soon as seen. "Much as elsewhere, I presume, the duck hunter has to keep his wits about him and be ready to act at very short notice ; but there is double necessity on the Verde. The only passages along the stream are Indian trails here always warpaths. In retaliation for real or fan- cied wrongs — or partly, at least, from inherent dispo- sition — these savages spend most of their time in wan- dering about in hopes of plunder and murder; this, too, against each other, so long as the tribes are not 130 DUCK SHOOTING. leagued in common cause against a common enemy. On the day I have in mind more particularly we passed a spot where lay the bodies of several Apaches. From the arrows still sticking in them wx judged afterward that they had been killed by a stray band of Navajos. But this was not what we thought most about at the time. We were only four together and this was close by the place we designed to spend the day in hunting and fishing. Contemplation of the decaying Indians was not calculated to raise our spirits, for though, of course, we knew the danger beforehand and meant to take our chances, it was not pleasant to have the thing brought up in such a way. We kept on through the canyon a little more cautiously, talked a little more seriously and concluded to look for game in places where there was the least likelihood of an ambuscade. I confess that the day's sport was rather too highly spiced to be alto- gether enjoyable, and suspect that others shared my uncomfortable conviction of foolhardiness. However, the day passed w^ithout further intimation of danger. Game was plenty and the shooting good. Out of the woods and with a good bag, we were disposed and could better afford to laugh at each other's fears." The habits of the red-breasted teal do not differ markedly from that of the eastern relative, which it so closely resembles. The true home of this species seems to be in Southern North America and South America, and it is found in Chili, Patagonia and the Falkland Islands. It is a bird that gives great shooting to western sportsmen. SHOVELLER. Spatula clypeata (Linn.), The male shoveller has the head and the upper neck very dark glossy green, with violet reflections, an en- tirely different color from that of the mallard, almost black. The lower neck and breast are white; belly and sides rich chestnut brown. The under tail-coverts and vent are black, bordered by a gray line, a patch of white at either side of the rump. The back is dusky brown; the upper tail-coverts black; the long scapu- lars, or shoulder feathers, streaked with black and white; the wing-coverts are light blue, the last row tipped with white, forming a narrow band across the wing, and back of this is a bright green speculum nar- 131 132 DUCK SHOOTING. rowly bordered by white. The tail is whitish, blotched with brownish-gray. The expanded bill is black, the eyes yellow and the feet orange-red. The female is colored very much as is the female mallard, but has the blue wing-coverts and the green speculum. The belly is sometimes pure white. The bill is orange or brown, often speckled with black. The feet are orange. Length, about 19 inches; wdng, 9 to 10 inches. Young males of different ages have the plumage generally like the female, but as they grow older the head and neck are mottled with black and the under parts are often chestnut. Whatever the plumage, the shoveller may be recognized by the great expansion of the bill toward the tip, which gives it the name spoon- bill. This bill has a fringe of very slender, close-set lamellae, which are long yet flexible, and are admirably adapted to the process of sifting out food from the fine soft mud in which the shoveller delights to feed. This species is one of the most widely distributed of all the ducks, being found throughout the whole of the northern hemisphere. In North America it is nowhere a very abundant duck, but, at the same time, is fre- quently met with throughout the South and West ; yet it never appears in great flocks, as do the black duck, mallard, widgeon and the teals, but rather in small, oc- casional companies, though I have seen a flock number- ing nearly a hundred. This, however, is unusual. On the New England coast and Long Island the shoveller is quite an uncommon bird, but further to the SHOVELLER, 1 33 southward, as in Maryland and North Carolina, it is frequently killed. In many of its ways, as, of course, in its appearance in some respects, it resembles the teals, but it is much less gregarious in its habits. The shov- eller breeds from Texas to Alaska, and I have fre- quently found the nests in Dakota, Montana and Wyo- ming, usually near prairie lakes, often under a bunch of rye grass or a sage brush and usually fairly well con- cealed. There are usually a few feathers and some down in the nest, which contains eight or ten greenish-white eggs. The female sits close, but when startled from her nest flies away without sound and soon disappears. The young, when first hatched, do not show the pe- culiar shape of the bill possessed by the adult, this being a later development. Young birds of the first season, when killed in the fall, will be found to have the bill very flexible, so that it can be bent in every direction. The shoveller is a fine table bird, but because of the small numbers that are killed it is not very well known. Mr. Trumbull gives as the names for this bird the blue-winged shoveller, red-breasted shoveller, shovel- bill, broady, butler duck — ''the bird being so called be- cause of its spoon-like bill, and with reference to a well- known general in the civil war" — cow-frog, spoon-billed widgeon, spoon-billed teal, mud-shoveller and swaddle- bill. In Louisiana the bird is known as mesquin. The note of the shoveller is a weak quack, somewhat like that of the green-winged teal.*^ *Compare "California Duck Notes," by Robert Erskine Ross, Forest and Stream, Vol. lix, p. 67, July 26, 1902. PINTAIL. Daiila acuta (Linn.). The male pintail has the head and upper neck wood brown, darkest on the crown, often with greenish, red- dish and purple reflections. A part of the hind neck is black; lower down it becomes grayish, finely barred with dusky, gray and white. The front of back and sides are waved with very fine cross bars of white and black. Most of the wing is gray or brownish. The speculum is green, in some lights coppery, margined with white, tawny and black, and with a cinnamon-colored bar in front. A line beginning at the back of the head and passing down the side of neck is white, running into the 134 PINTAIL. 135 white of the fore-neck and under parts. The long feathers growing from the third bone of the wing are pale gray, with a black strip down the middle. The long scapulars, or shoulder feathers, are black, edged with whitish.' The upper and under tail-coverts are black, touched with white on the outside, forming a line of white. The tail feathers are mostly gray and brown, but the long central pair, which are narrow and pointed, and extend far beyond the others, are black. The bill is bluish-gray, eyes brown, and the legs and feet gray. Length, 26-30 inches; wing, over 10 inches. The female is one of the plain grayish ducks, resem- bling in a general way the female mallard, or the female green-winged teal. The ground color of the upper parts is rusty or whitish, streaked with dusky or brown- ish. The chin and throat are whitish ; the wing-coverts brownish-gray, edged with white. The under parts are white, streaked with dusky. The bird is always to be distinguished by its bill and its feet. The pintail is a bird of wide distribution, inhabiting the whole of the northern hemisphere, from Alaska on the west to Japan and Northern Kamschatka on the east. In America it is found all over the country, at dif- ferent seasons of the year, from ocean to ocean, and from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Sea. In winter it is found in Cuba also. Although breeding in Alaska, on the Mackenzie River, and in Greenland, it is also a summer resident of the Western United States, and breeds in considerable numbers in Dakota, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. I have found their nests there 136 DUCK SHOOTING. m the middle of June, the young not yet having made their appearance. The pintail is not very abundant in autumn on the New England coast, though it is found occasionally in Maine and Massachusetts, and in somewhat greater abundance in Connecticut, where it is known as pheas- ant. On Long Island it is more common during the migrations, and when we reach the coast of Virginia and North Carolina it is one of the abundant ducks. Here it often associates with the mallard and black duck, and when the birds fly to and fro from their feed- ing grounds, a small bunch may contain four or five mallards, two or three black ducks and an equal number of pintails. On the other hand, little flocks made up only of pintails are often seen. In the first volume of the ''Water Birds" Dr. Brewer gives the following abridgment of Mr. Kennicott's ac- count of the pintail in the north : *'The summer home of the pintail is within the Arctic region, farther to the northward than that of any other of our fresh- water ducks, comparatively few breeding south of Great Slave Lake. In their spring migrations to the northward they move in immense flocks, which only dis- perse upon their arrival at their breeding groimds. A few reach that lake about May i, but the main body ar- rive about a week or so later, and mostly pass directly on across the lake to the northward. On the Yukon the first specimens were seen in the latter part of April, and before the lOth of May they had arrived in im- mense flocks, which remained some time together in PINTAIL, 137 that vicinity before passing farther north or separating to breed. At this time the birds were fat, and their flesh deHcious, much superior to that of any other duck, except the widgeon. At the Yukon the pintails are the latest in nesting of any of the fresh-water ducks, and generally hatch a week or two after the mallard. He found them breeding in the same grounds and at about the same time, with Fulix aMnis, though they do not associate with that species. He always found their nests in low but dry ground, under the shelter of trees or bushes, though never among thick, large trees, and not more than two or tliree rods from water. They never build on hummocks in the water, nor on high land, but always just upon the edge of a marsh or lake. The nest is usually placed at the foot of a willow, among grass rather than leaves or moss, and is ex- tremely simple, being composed of merely a few bits of broken dry grass and sticks, but well lined with down. The eggs are from seven to nine in number, and rather small in size." Mr. E. W. Nelson, whose studies of northern birds are so interesting, has given a graphic account of the breeding habits of the pintail, and, among otlier things, calls attention to an act by this duck curiously similar to the well-known drumming of the snipe. The bird falls from a great height, with wings held stiff and curved, and producing a sound which at first is low, but gradually grows louder, until, as the bird reaches the ground in its diagonal fall, the sound becomes very loud. A man who has had a bunch of canvas-backs or 138 DUCK SHOOTING. black-heads sweep down over him as they prepare to aHght, can well imagine what this sound is like. The cry of the pintail in autumn and winter is a low, lisping whistle, but at other times it is said to utter a sound something like the quack of the mallard, and also one similar to the rolling note produced by the black-head. The pintail is quite a shy bird ; its usual flight is high in the air, which gives it an opportunity to inspect the country for signs of danger. Often, however, if the weather is favorable, these birds come well to decoys, and are easily killed. There are few more graceful species than this. The long pointed wings, the slender form, terminating in a long neck and tail, and the swift flight, make the bird a very beautiful one. This species rejoices in many names, and some of them given by Mr. Trumbull are pied gray duck, gray widgeon, sea widgeon, split-tail, sprig-tail, spike- tail, picket-tail, sea pheasant, water pheasant, long neck, sharp-tail and spindle-tail. WOOD DUCK. Aix sponsa (Linn.), The adult male has the head and long thick crest rich green and purple, with brilliant metallic reflections. A narrow line of white starts from the upper angle of the bill, passing over the eye, and continuing down into the crest. Another wider line starts behind the eye and runs down into the under part of the crest. The throat and upper neck are white, sending out two branches, one up behind the eye, another back behind the head, partly enclosing the violet black of the lower back of the head. The lower neck and breast are rich chestnut glossed with purple, dotted in front with triangular 139 I40 DUCK SHOOTING. spots of white. The back is purpHsh-black, with glossy reflections, as are also the upper wing-coverts. The shoulder feathers and tertiaries are black, with blue, green and purple reflections, and the longest of the ter- tiary feathers is tipped with white. On the side of the breast, just in front of the wing, is a broad white bar, and below it, another bar, which is black. The sides and flanks are finely waved with black lines on a brown- ish-yellow ground, many of the feathers having a bar of black, bordered with white at the extremities. The under parts are pure white, but the under tail-coverts are glossy black. The upper tail-coverts are long, fall over the tail on either side, and are rich with metallic reflections. The bill is deep red, with a black spot near the base, a white spot on the side, a yellow border to the base, and with a black nail. The eyes are bright carmine red, surrounded by orange-red or scarlet eye- lids. The legs and feet are yellow, with dusky joints and webs. The adult female is generally gray, or greenish-gray, but her markings, in a general way, resemble those of the male. She has the crest, but not so much of it as the male. The throat and under parts are white; the breast and sides greenish-gray, dotted with white mark- ings; the upper parts are more brownish, and have purple and bronzy reflections. The secondaries are white-tipped. The bill is dusky, and there is a narrow line of white all about it. The length is about 19 inches, wing 9^ inches. The wood duck is easily the most beautiful of North WOOD DUCK. 141 American ducks. It is commonly compared with the mandarin duck of China, but it is larger and its dress is a little more highly colored, and while more rich, is yet more simple. This is a bird of the South, and breeds everywhere throughout the Eastern and Southern United States, in suitable localities. Unlike most of our ducks, it is not a migrant to the far North, though it has been found as far North as latitude 54 degrees, but it con- fines itself pretty well to the United States, and further to the southward. The wood duck is a bird of swamps and small inland waters, and is notable as being one of the few species which ahvays nests in trees. Sometimes it takes pos- session of a hole excavated by a great woodpecker, or it may adapt a hollow in a trunk or branch to its use. It is very much at home in the timber, and threads its way among the tree-tops at great speed. The eggs are often laid on the bare wood that forms the floor of the cavity w^hich it occupies, but, as incubation goes on, the mother plucks more or less down from her breast to cover them. When the young are hatched, if the nest is over the water, they crawl to the opening and throw themselves into the air to fall into the water. If, however, the nest is at a distance from the shore, the mother carries them to the water in her bill. When the young ducks are hatched their claws are exceedingly sharp, and they are great climbers. They thus have little difficulty in making their way to the mouth of the hole. 142 DUCK SHOOTING. The wood duck is often kept in confinement, and is a. beautiful pet. There are many records of its having been bred in captivity. While a great many wood ducks are shot, they are nowhere sufficiently numerous tc make it worth while to gun especially for them. Those that are killed are taken chiefly by accident, when they fly near to decoys put out for other fow^l. Being shot at all seasons of the year they are becoming very scarce and are likely to be exterminated before long. •/•..»^,.^ — DIVING DUCKS, SUB-FAMILY FuHgulmCF, Under this head are included what are commonly known as the sea ducks, deep water ducks, or diving ducks, birds more fitted for a continuous life on the water than those heretofore described, and which, as a rule, derive their sustenance from water deeper than that frequented by the shoal-water ducks. As pointed out in another place, these birds have larger feet than the shoal-water ducks, while the legs are placed further back. These characters make pro- gression on land more difficult, but assist markedly in swimming and diving. All the birds of this sub-family may be known by having a web or lobe hanging down from the hind toe. This web or lobe is absent in all the fresh-water ducks. The sea ducks or diving ducks are supposed to spend most of their time on the salt water, but this is a rule to which there are a multitude of exceptions, and many of the species of this sub- family resort to inland waters to rear their young. Some birds commonly regarded as exclusively marine are found at all seasons of the year on great bodies of fresh water, as the Great Lakes and Yellowstone Lake in Wyoming. As stated, most of the members of this sub-family procure their food by diving, and bring up from the depths of water fish, mollusks and grasses of one kind 143 144 DUCK SHOOTING. and another. Many of them are, therefore, not delicate food, although, on the other hand, the far-famed can- vas-back, which belongs to this group, is one of the choicest of our ducks. There are various strongly marked anatomical and other differences within the group, which do not re- quire consideration here. They are described at length in various ornithological works. Mr. Elliot has pointed out that, as a rule, the notes of these birds are harsh and guttural. While the fresh-water ducks usually spend their time in the marshes and in fresh-water ponds during the day, the sea ducks, as a rule, resort to wide stretches of open water, where in moderate weather they rest dur- ing the middle of the day, resorting to their feeding grounds at evening, and sometimes feeding during the night and well into the morning. RUFOUS-CRESTED DUCK^ Netta rufina ( Pall. ) . The adult male has the sides of head and throat pur- plish-brown, darker on the throat, and changing to pale reddish at the front and base of the crest, becoming paler toward the tips of the feathers. The lower half of the neck, with a narrow strip running up the back of the neck to the head, the breast, belly, lower tail-coverts, upper tail-coverts and rump, black ; darkest on the neck and breast, and with greenish reflections on upper tail- coverts. Back, grayish-brown, growing darker toward the rump. The scapulars, or shoulder feathers, brown- ish-yellow. Speculum, white tipped with gray. The bend of the wing, white, as are also the primaries, ex- cept the tips of some of the outer ones, which are gray- 145 146 DUCK SHOOTING. ish-brown. The sides and flanks, white, indistinctly marked with brownish bars. The tail is grayish- brown ; the bill and feet red. There is a full, soft crest on the crown oi the head. Length, 22 inches; wing, 10 inches. The female has much less crest than the male, and it is brown. The rest of the head and neck, and the lower parts, generally, are pale ashy, darker on the breast and sides. The upper parts are grayish-brown. Those por- tions that are white in the male are faintly marked in the female, or do not show at all. The speculum is white, as in the male, but much duller. This is an Old World species, very doubtfully at- tributed to North America. It may be questioned whether it has ever been seen here in life by an orni- thologist, but specimens have been found in the New York markets for sale, with other ducks which were known to have been killed near that city. No sports- man is likely to meet with it, but it is introduced here to complete the list of North American ducks. ■■■■■I!^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ CANVAS-BACK DUCK. Ay thy a vallisneria (Wils.). The adult male has the top of the head and the feath- ers immediately about the base of the bill and chin, black; the rest of head and neck are reddish-brown, what would be called in a horse, mahogany bay. The lower neck, fore-back and breast, black. The back, lower breast and belly, white, very finely waved with black bars ; whence the name, canvas-back. Primaries, black. The tail, black, with a grayish cast ; bill, black , iris, red ; feet, lead color. The female has those parts which in the male are red, brown and black, wood-brown, with touches of whitish behind the eye, and on the fore-neck. The plumage, generally, is grayish-brown, the tips of the 147 148 DUCK SHOOTING. feathers often being whitish, and vermiculated with dusky. The length is 20 to 22 inches. Of the American ducks, the canvas-back is easily the most famous. Its flesh depends for its flavor en- tirely on the food that the bird eats, and since for many years it was chiefly killed where the so-called wild celery abounds, the reputation of the canvas-back was made by the individuals that fed on this grass. As a matter of fact, it may be doubted whether in waters where this plant is abundant the canvas-back is any better than some of its fellows of the duck tribe, such as the redhead or the widgeon, which subsist largely on the same food. But the fame of the canvas- back is now too firmly established ever to be shaken, and it will continue to be regarded, as it has so long been, as the king of our ducks. The canvas-back is an American species, and has not even any close relatives in the Old World. In winter it ranges south as far as Central America, but confines it- self to no portion of the country, being equally abund- ant on both coasts, and in the interior as well. I have killed it on the Atlantic coast, as well as in Southern California; and during the migrations it is abundant in Montana, and generally throughout the interior. Years ago the canvas-back bred in the Northern United States, toward the west, probably in Minnesota, certainly in Dakota and Montana, but, as with so many other species, the settling up of the northern country has destroyed its breeding grounds, and it now, for the most part, passes far to the northward to breed. Dr. CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 149 Dall found it breeding at Fort Yukon, in Alaska. Mr. Ross met with it on Great Slave Lake ; and other north- ern observers have detected it throughout the fur coun- tries. Besides this, Captain Bendire found it breeding in Oregon, and Dr. Newberry believed that he had ob- tained evidence of its nesting in the Cascade range. The nest of the canvas-back is large and well built, and is lined with down and feathers, plucked from the breast of the mother bird. The eggs are grayish-green in color and number from seven to nine. On their return from the North the canvas-backs reach the United States late in October or early in No- vember. They are hardy birds, and it seems that it takes cold weather to drive them southward. On the New England coast they are very rare, though a few used to be killed there. On Long Island they scarcely ever occur of late years, nor are they found in great numbers on the Virginia coast. In North Carolina, how- ever, and along the open broad waters which fringe that State and South Carolina, canvas-backs are very abundant. They used to be so, also, in the Chesapeake Bay, but continual gunning and the destruction of their feeding grounds by frequent floods, which kill the plants on which they subsist, have made them there much less abundant than they used to be. The shoot- ing grounds in Chesapeake Bay and Susquehanna Flats, which a few years ago afiforded such good gimning that they were bought or rented at fabulous prices, are no longer so much frequented by the birds, and have be- come much less valuable. 150 DUCK SHOOTING. Like many others of our game birds, the canvas-back during the last few years has learned a good deal. Al- ways a shy and wary bird and difficult of approach, it has learned to avoid the shores, and perhaps is grad- ually learning to avoid the bush-blind. As its diving powers are great and it is not obliged to fly over the land to get to its feeding grounds, it spends its time in great rafts, on the shallow open waters of such sounds as Currituck, Pamlico, Core and Albemarle, feeding safe from danger, and during the morning and evening hours taking its exercise by flying great distances up and down the sounds, high in air, far above the reach of any gun. It is only in dull and rainy weather, when the wind blows hard, that the canvas-backs come m from the open water to seek the shelter of a lee of the marsh, but when such weather comes and the gunner is properly located, the canvas-backs will come to his de- coys as readily as any other ducks. In the same way, when — as happens usually at least once each year — a cold snap closes the waters of the sound, leaving only a few air lioles, where warm springs or swiftly moving currents keep the waters open, the canvas-back and other fowl resorting to these open spots may be killed in great numbers. On such an occasion, in January, 1900, I saw canvas-backs in numbers greater than I ever beheld before. An account of this flight, pub- lished in Forest and Stream, is as follows : ^'I have recently had an opportunity of being brought into what I may call close association with the greatest of all the wildfowl, the §uperb canvas-back duck, and CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 15I within the last ten days have seen more of these birds and at closer quarters than during any season for many years. The locality was Currituck Sound, and the sights that I saw were witnessed by several others, old gunners, who agree with me that so great a flight of canvas-backs has not been witnessed for many years. "The first few days of shooting had about it nothing very startling except that one-half the bag of ducks consisted of canvas-backs. The first day was cold, gray and lowering, with a keen breeze from the northwest, and occasional spatters of rain, changing later to snow, which in the afternoon fell heavily. It was an ideal gunning day, and the birds came to the decoys in beau- tiful style, so that the first seven or eight canvas-backs were killed without a single miss, and for a brief and happy hour I was deluded into the belief that at last I had learned how to shoot ducks. The rude awaken- ing from this cheerful dream came soon afterward, and was thorough. I do not imagine that I shall ever again be deceived in this way. 'The second day's shooting was not markedly differ- ent from that of the day before, except so far as the weather was less favorable, and so the number of can- vas-backs secured was very much less. Saturday was a lay day, on which there is no shooting, and when we arose we found that the continued cold weather had at last had its effect and the sound was frozen over. There were many large air holes, however, crowded with birds, but the cold continued. The next morning many of these air holes had frozen, others had grown smaller 152 DUCK SHOOTING. and the natural result was that the ducks, geese, swans and blue-peters which occupied the open water seemed crowded together as thickly as possible. Much of the day was spent on top of the club house, studying the waters with the glass, watching the movements of the birds, marveling at their inconceivable numbers. All around the horizon, except on the landward side — that is to say, for 270 degrees of the circle — ^birds were seen in countless numbers. Turning the glasses slowly along the horizon from northwest to north, east, south and southwest, there was no moment at which clouds of flying fowl could not be seen in the field of sight, and yet, notwithstanding the numbers of birds seen on the wing, the air holes seemed to be packed with fowl, and great bunches of geese and swans stood and walked about on the ice. "Away to the north were three large air holes, two of which were white with canvas-backs, while in the third one, geese were the prominent fowl, although many canvas-backs were constantly leaving and coming to it. Off to the southeast, at the south mouth of the Little Narrows, was quite an extent of open water occupied by a horde of geese, two large bunches of blue-peters and some thousands of common ducks. In the Little Narrows, a deep but narrow channel flowing close by the house, were great numbers of ducks feeding, and in- deed on that Sunday one might have sat on the boat- house dock and killed from thirty to fifty birds as they traded up and down the Narrows. "In the afternoon three or four of us walked down to CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 153 Sheep Island Point, not ten minutes' distance from the house, where there was an air hole. In this at the moment of our arrival swam fifty or sixty ducks — hooded mergansers, ruddies, mallards, whistlers, butter- balls and perhaps a dozen canvas-backs. Three or four hundred yards to the north was another small air hole, perhaps four or five acres in extent, which was crowded with canvas-backs. We sat down in the fringe of sedge about 60 or 70 yards from the nearest air hole, which had a length of perhaps 150 feet and a breadth of 100. The live birds in this air hole would make good decoys, and we hoped that if the fowl began to fly some of them would alight near us. Two of the four men were pro- vided with good field glasses. "We had not been waiting many minutes, when what we had hoped for took place. A bunch of 200 birds rose from the further air hole, and after swinging about a few times, dropped down in the one close to us. These were immediately followed by other bunches, and these by others; so that often two or three flocks would be swinging about in the air at one time, and all of them with our air hole as their objective point. They de- scended into it by companies of fifties, hundreds and two hundreds, and before long the open water was so crowded with the fowl that it seemed as if it could hold no more, and as if the birds that came next must neces- sarily alight on the backs of their comrades. *'Soon after the birds alighted they began to dive for food, and, probably one-half of them being under water at any one moment, room was made for other incom- 154 DUCK SHOOTING. ing birds to occupy. The splashing of the diving ducks made the water bubble and boil, and the play of the birds as they sometimes chased each other made the scene one of the greatest possible animation. Presently something occurred to attract their attention, and all stretched their necks up into the air and looked. I think I have never seen anything in the way of feath- ered animal life more impressive than this forest of thick necks, crowned by long, shapely heads of rich brown. After their curiosity was satisfied they began again to feed and to play. It is impossible to convey to one who has not witnessed such a sight its interest and fascination. Here within gunshot — and when seen through the glasses appearing within arm's length — were twelve or fifteen hundred of the most desirable duck that flies, entirely at home and living for the benefit of the observers their ordinary winter lives. "Looking with the glasses over the smooth ice away to the northward, we could see flying over the ice, or resting on it, fowl as far as the eye could reach. From the level of the ice where we sat, the ducks, resting on the water, appeared only as indistinct lines. The geese were, of course, larger and darker, and made distinct black lines ; while some very distant swans, resting on the ice, were m.agnified by the illusive effects of the mi- rage, so that they looked like detached white houses. While we sat watching the canvas-backs, two or three small flocks of geese swung around over the air hole, but finding no spot where they might moisten the soles of their feet, they alighted on the ice just beyond it. CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 155 "We sat and watched the fowl until the increasing chill of the air and the sinking sun warned us to return to the house. As we arose without any precautions the canvas-backs at once became alert, and as we pushed our way among the reeds away from the shore the whole mass rose with a mighty roar of wings and a splashing of water that made one think more of the noise of Broadway when traffic is heaviest than any- thing else that I can recall. 'That night it w^as again cold, and in the morning the Little Narrows was closed by ice, except for a few air holes, and the open water in the sound was still less. The ice was not yet sufficiently strong to bear a man, and yet it was too heavy to be broken through by a boat. Numbers of the shore gunners endeavored to get out to the air holes to shoot there, but none, I think, suc- ceeded. Those of us at the house shot at various nearby points, with moderate success, one man making the great score of sixty-six canvas-backs, besides some other ducks. "That night after dinner one of the party stepped out on the porch of the house to look at the weather. The night was clear and cold, brilliant stars twinkled in the sky ; through the branches of the trees over the boat- . house corner, and reflected in the placid waters of an air hole in the Narrows, shone the crescent of the young moon, embracing between its horns the dull globe which was yet to grow. The scene was odd and beautiful, like a staee effect of some mediaeval scene. As he stood there, delighting in the beauty of the night, yet nipped 156 DUCK SHOOTING. a little by the keen frost, a curious sound — like that made by a river running over the pebbles of a shallow — came to his ear. It recalled to the veteran salmon angler the murmur of the Restigouche as through forest and open and deep pool and murmuring shoal it hurries on its way to the Bay of Chaleurs. He wondered what could cause this sound in this place, and above all on such a night, and, walking down to the boat house, passed through it and stood on the dock. Here the ex- planation of the sound was plain. The air holes which during the day had enlarged were crowded with feeding canvas-backs, and the murmur of the water was neither more nor less than the splashing made by the fowl as they dived for food. ''The freeze lasted for some days longer. The birds were abundant; but the weather, clear, windless and toward the last warm, was much against the gunning, since the fowl did not fly. Nevertheless one or two men at different times had good shooting — some of them better than they had ever enjoyed before or expect ever to have again. This shooting was largely at canvas- backs, since very few common ducks were shot. The freeze having closed their feeding grounds, they sat about on the ice, unwary and inert, waiting till the waters should open again, and in the meantime starv- ing. Under such circumstances no one cared to kill them. On the other hand, the canvas-backs taken were unusually heavy and fine birds. "Across the sound, on the waters of a neighboring club, very great shooting was enjoyed, though they se- CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 1 57 cured practically no canvas-backs. On the other hand, they made enormous bags of geese and swans, some- thing which no one can regret, since the geese and the swans at Currituck Sound are so numerous that they eat up vast quantities of the food which might better be consumed by the ducks. There are men long familiar with these waters who declare tkat the geese and the swans are constantly becoming more and more abund- ant and that ultimately they will occupy these waters to the exclusion of more desirable fowl. This, however, is not likely to occur in our time, and the prophecy may be classed with another, made twenty years ago by one of the most eminent ornithologists of this country, wdio declared that fifteen years from that time the blue-peter would be the game bird of Currituck Sound. The years have come and the years have gone, but there are still a few canvas-backs left, and it is possible that when our children tie out in Currituck Sound in just the right weather they, too, may kill a few of these glorious birds." The food of the canvas-back, from which it takes its specific name, and to which it owes its delicious flavor, is the so-called wild celery, which is really a water grass. It grows both in fresh and brackish water, and is common at various points along the sea-coast, and also in the fresh waters of the interior. This plant, like many others, has a variety of com- mon names. Some of the most familiar in different localities are "tape grass," from the tape-like appear- ance of the long leaves; "channel weed," as it fre- 158 DUCK SHOOTING. quently grows in channels where the water flows, not swiftly; "eel grass" — this name arises, it is said, by Dr. Darlington, from the habit which eels have of hiding under the leaves, which are usually procumbently float- ing under the water's surface. The appellation 'Svild celery," a local term applied originally perhaps only by gunners and watermen at Havre de Grace and vicinity, is, like many vulgar synonyms, a misnomer, as this plant is in no particular related to celery, which by botanists is known as Aphim. Wild celery, or, as it is more generally known along the coast, eel grass, is not confined to the Chesapeake Bay or to the sea-coast. It is found in the Brandywine Creek, growing in slow- running water, and in many other interior waters. The scientific name of the plant is Vallisneria spiralis (Linn.), the generic name being given in honor of An- tonio Vallisneri, an Italian botanist. It is a dioecious herbaceous plant remarkable on account of its mode of fertilization. It grows entirely under water, has long radical grass-like leaves from one to three feet long and from one-quarter to three-quarters of an inch wide. The female flower floats at the surface at the end of long thread-like spiral scapes, which curiously contract and lengthen with the rise and fall of the water. The male flower has very short stems or scapes, from which the flowers break off and rise to the surface to fertilize the pollen of the attached floating female flowers. The canvas-back is one of the swiftest of all our ducks. It is commonly said that they fly at the rate of ninety miles an hour, but, of course, this is a mere CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 1 59 guess, since no accurate observations have ever been made on their flight. It is certain that they proceed at great speed, and the novice at canvas-back shooting is very sure to shoot behind them until he has had a great deal of practice. The canvas-backs start from their southern home to- ward the north early in March and follow the coast and the interior northward, often reaching northern waters before they are generally open. On the breeding grounds they are practically undisturbed. -:?*:;^CSf^?