42 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



decoys which are used to attract them. In wind)- weather, however, when the 

 well-painted Black Duck decoys are bobbing about actively on the water, the 

 birds are occasionally deceived. Black Ducks are sometimes shot, especially in 

 stormy weather, as they spring from pools in the marsh or from small creeks 

 under whose banks at low tide they have been feeding concealed, or as they fly 

 low to and from their feeding-places at sunset and sunrise. In calm weather 

 they are apt to fly high. 



When the creeks are locked by ice, the gunner, clad in white, takes his 

 station behind blocks of ice near a small opening and shoots the birds as they 

 fly to and fro. At these times, owing to scanty feeding, even the wary Black 

 Duck becomes desperate and loses some of its shyness. This aberration of 

 mind on the part of the Black Duck is always hoped for but rarely found, and 

 when it does occur the gunner is apt to be rewarded by only skin and bones. 



On moonlight nights the gunner ensconces himself in a blind by a creek or 

 mudflat and uses bunches of seaweed, blocks of mud, or junks of ice covered 

 with dark cloth for decoys. The Black Ducks readily come in to these rude 

 decoys in the uncertain light of the moon. The gunner may hear the whistle 

 of wings all around him, often apparently close at hand, but is rarely able 

 to see the birds except momentarily as they fly across the path of the moon. 

 When the moon is overcast, however, the light is more diffuse and the birds 

 may be more readily seen. Occasionally the Ducks swim up the creeks to the 

 decoys, and are shot on the water. It is cold and uncertain, but often exciting 

 sport. 



