74 Bird-Life in Labrador. 



if the water be tranquil, a flock of ducks often a couple of 

 miles to seaward. A patient hunter will then conceal himself 

 near some chosen feeding ground, imitate the call of the male 

 bird, and decoy a flock or single bird quite close and within 

 shooting distance. The call is whistled, and soinids like the 

 single, double, or triple call of a snipe, repeated several times 

 in a sort of guttural tone, if such an expression may be ap- 

 plied to a whistle ; after every few repetitions there is an ex- 

 tra low and another similar high note which rounds off" the 

 whistle with that peculiar effect so often practiced by small 

 boys in trying to roll the tongue, and which enters into the 

 call of so many water birds. At low and falling tide the 

 ducks assemble in large colonies on their feeding grounds, 

 where the water is shallow and the kelp and muscles thick — 

 generally at evening and in the early morning ; at such times 

 they will sit upon the rocks and remain tliere until urged or 

 driven off; their sight and hearing seem then to be marvelous, 

 and the slightest noise sends them off into the water. I have 

 seen them in midday thus sunning and resting themselves, but 

 they are so watchful that it is rare for you to get near enough 

 for a shot at them. They dive at the flash of the gun. I 

 have fired at them, at a rather long gunshot off, and seen them 

 dive the shot striking the place they had occupied only a sec- 

 ond previous. 



An experienced hunter, when on shore, will get as near to 

 a flock or a single bird as possible without alarming it and 

 wait paitently for it to dive, as it so often does while feeding 

 in apparently safety, when he will run ahead to some shelter 

 nearer the object of his desire, repeating the operation until 

 he regards himself as sufficiently near, and then, remaining 

 standing with his gun at his shoulder, fire at the unconscious 

 bird when it rises from some long div^e, generally killing it. 

 In the Fall, when a brood of young ducks is surprised, it is 

 quite easy to secure a large number, though the old birds 

 generally esca])e by flight and swimming under the water: 

 they accomplish this latter act with ease, and often swim long 



