214 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



This method is well described by Mr. Dwight W. Huntington (1903) 

 as follows : 



Just before daybreak we reached the place determined upon and found it unoccu- 

 pied. The battery was placed in the water, the decoys were arranged about it within 

 close range, and my gimner sailed away to leave me lying below the surface of the 

 bay in the box with its wide rim floating on the water. As the first light came in 

 the east I could see the ducks, mostly scaups and redheads, flying swiftly across the 

 dim gray light. Soon there was a rush of wings quite close to my head as a flock of 

 blackheads swung in to the decoys. Sitting up I fired two barrels at the shadowy 

 forms, but notliing struck the water, and the noisy whistling of wings was soon lost 

 in the darkness. As the sun came up the ducks came rapidly, sometimes one or two, 

 more often a flock. I shot at every one, with but poor success. The cramped posi- 

 tion, the hasty shot from a sitting position, were new to me and strange, and it was 

 some time before I began to kill the ducks. A single bird coming head on was about 

 to settle to the decoys, when I fired at him at close range, and he struck the water 

 dead. Shortly afterwards I made a double from a flock, and with growing confidence 

 my shooting improved. I soon had a goodly lot of scaups showing black and white 

 upon the waves as they drifted with the breeze. Meanwhile the bay man, who had 

 been cruising far enough away not to alarm the ducks, approached and gathered in 

 the slain. 



Mr. Walter H. Rich (1907) says that on the coast of Maine — 

 most of the bluebills are killed from the "gunning float," the gunner clad in a white 

 suit and the little craft itself " dressed down " to the water's edge \vith snow and ice 

 to represent a floating ice cake. It is no wonder that the poor victims are "de- 

 uded " for it needs sharp eyes and close attention to make out anything dangerous 

 in an object so harmless in appearance. There is commonly little trouble in ap- 

 proaching within easy range of a flock if the gunner is skilled in handling his craft, 

 but to get within shot reach is not all, for any duck which can last out the New Eng- 

 land winter will carry off a good load of shot, as the bird must have an abundance of 

 vitality and an extra-heavy suit of underwear to endure the climate. Both of these 

 our hero has. 



Winter. — On the Pacific coast there is a southward migration route 

 from the Alaskan breeding grounds and probably a southwestward 

 flight from the interior. Mr. W. L. Dawson (1909) writes of their 

 arrival on the Washington coast: 



At Semiahmoo Spit, upon our northern boundary, the bluebills begin to arrive 

 from the north about the 20th of September, and their numbers are augmented for 

 at least a month thereafter. The earlier arrivals come in small flocks of from a dozen 

 to 25 individuals, borne upon the wings of a northwest breeze, and as they pass the 

 narrow promontory of sand, the waiting gunners exact toll of those which enter the 

 harbor. Upon the waters of the inner bay, Drayton Harbor, the incoming birds as- 

 semble in a great raft, five or ten thousand strong, and if undisturbed, deploy to dive 

 in shallow water, feeding not only upon the eelgrass itself, but upon the varied forms 

 of life which shelter in its green fastnesses. 



About half an hour before sunset, as though by some preconcerted signal, a grand 

 exodus takes place. Flock joins flock as the birds rise steadily against the wind. 

 Mindful of their former experience, the ducks attain a height of two or three times 

 that at which they entered the harbor and, strong in the added confidence of num- 

 bers, the serried host, some 40 companies abreast, sweeps over the spit in unison — a 

 beautiful and impressive sight. Some five minutes later a second movement of » 



