LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 199 



The coast region of Virginia and North Carolina with its numerous 

 estuaries and tributary streams has ahvays been the most famous 

 winter resorts of canvasbacks, and many other species of wild fowl, 

 in North America. Vast hordes of canvasbacks, redheads, scaup 

 ducks, as well as geese and swans formerly frequented these waters, 

 attracted by the mild climate and the abundance of food. Several 

 generations of gunners, by persistent and constant warfare, have 

 seriously reduced the numbers of these hosts of wildfowl, but the 

 birds are still sufficiently plentiful to attract sportsmen in large 

 numbers and to keep alive the various gunning clubs which now 

 control nearly all of the best shooting grounds. Some of the more 

 destructive methods of killing ducks, such as night shooting and 

 wholesale slaughter with swivel guns, have been prohibited by law. 

 Netting ducks in gill nets sunken a short distance below the surface 

 proved very destructive, but was abandoned as the ducks caught in 

 this way became water soaked and of inferior flavor. 



One of the oldest and most sportsmanlike methods of shooting 

 ducks on Chesapeake Bay is known as point shooting. The sports- 

 man lies concealed in a blind, with a retriever to pick up his birds, 

 and waits for passing flocks to come near enough for a shot. The 

 best flight is early in the morning, between dawn and sunrise when 

 the ducks are flying to their feeding grounds ; they usually fly around 

 the points rather than over them; but if the wind is favorable, they 

 often come within gunshot. This kind of shooting requires con- 

 siderable practice and hard shooting guns, for the canvasbacks fly 

 swiftly, often high in the air and are hard to kill, all of which makes 

 it attractive to the true sportsman. Similar shooting is obtained on 

 narrow sand bars where the ducks fly directly overhead; this is even 

 more difiicult. Canvasbacks are also shot over decoys at the points, 

 from blinds on the flats, and from water holes in the ice on the rivers. 



An interesting ancient method of shooting canvasbacks was by toll- 

 ing them in with a small dog, especially trained for the purpose. Some 

 quiet place was selected where a large flock of canvasbacks was bed- 

 ded a short distance offshore and where the hunters could conceal 

 themselves in some suitable ambush near the water. A small dog 

 was kept running up and down the beach after sticks or stones, with 

 a white or red handkerchief fluttering from some part of his body, 

 which would so arouse the curiosity of the ducks that they would 

 raise their heads and swim in toward shore to study the cause of such 

 peculiar actions. Often their discovery of the hidden danger came 

 too late, for as they turned to swim away they would receive a broad- 

 side from a batteiy of guns and large numbers would be killed. 

 Tolling is now prohibited in many places. 



The old-fashioned dugout, in which the hunter lay concealed with 

 his boat covered with eolgrass has been entirely replaced by the mod- 

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