338 SWIMMERS. 



and high estimation in which these Ducks are held, spurs the 

 ingenuity of the gunner to practise every expedient which may 

 promise success in their capture. They are sometimes decoyed 

 to shore or within gunshot by means of a dog trained for the 

 purpose, which, playing backwards and forwards along the 

 shore, attracts the vacant curiosity of the birds, and as they 

 approach within a suitable distance, the concealed fowler rakes 

 them first on the water, and afterwards as they rise. Some- 

 times by moonlight the sportsman directs his skiff towards a 

 flock, whose position he has previously ascertained, and keep- 

 ing within the projecting shadow of some wood, bank, or head- 

 land, he paddles silently along to within fifteen or twenty yards 

 of a flock of many thousands, among whom he consequently 

 makes great destruction. 



As the severity of the winter augments, and the rivers be- 

 come extensively frozen, the Canvas-backs retreat towards the 

 ocean, and are then seen in the shallow bays which still remain 

 open, occasionally also frequenting the air-holes in the ice, 

 and openings which are sometimes made for the purpose, 

 immediately over the beds of sea-grass, to entice them within 

 gunshot of the hut or bush fixed at a convenient distance for 

 commanding the hungry flocks. So urgent sometimes are the 

 Ducks for food in winter that at one of these artificial openings 

 in the ice, in James River, a Mr. Hill, according to Wilson, 

 accompanied by a second person, picked up from one of these 

 decoys, at three rounds each, no less than eighty-eight Canvas- 

 backs. The Ducks crowded to the place so that the whole 

 open space was not only covered with them, but vast numbers, 

 waiting their turn, stood inactive on the ice around it. 



The Canvas-back will also eat seeds and grain as well as 

 marine grass, and seems especially fond of wheat, by which 

 it may be decoyed to particular places, after continuing the 

 bait for several days in succession. The loss of a vessel loaded 

 with this grain, near the entrance of Great Egg Harbor, in New 

 Jersey, attracted vast flocks of these Ducks to the spot, so that 

 not less than two hundred and forty were killed in one day by 

 the neighboring gunners, who assembled to the spot in quest 



