SEA DUCKS 115 



the same flock, after being shot at to leave the decoys, fly a 

 short distance and return the second and third time, although 

 half or more of their number might be dead or wounded. 



I have let the young birds alight with the decoys and 

 watched to see what they would do. After sitting still a few 

 moments, some of them would edge up to a decoy sidewise, but 

 just before the instant for touching it they would find out their 

 mistake, when they would jump sidewise, with a look which 

 would seem to say, " You are a little off" size and color, where 

 did you come from? " Again I have seen them swim up to a 

 decoy and peck at it, and when their bill struck the wood 

 there would be another expression too ludicrous for anything. 

 Then I should like to have been a good bird mind reader. 



During the spring flight, if a male and female come to the 

 decoys and you kill the male and the female goes clear, she 

 will always return for the male, though the male will rarely if 

 ever return for the female. The gunners knowing this, if they 

 have to take chances on a pair of birds always shoot the male 

 first, for they know that the female will return, and they will 

 be quite sure to get her. 



Another peculiarity common to both the White-wing and 

 Surf Duck is this : if they pass between your boat and the land 

 too far away to shoot, screech at them and they will always 

 turn oft from the land towards you. When they are too shy 

 to come to decoys the gunners take advantage of them in this 

 way. While all three species are the same in their other habits, 

 I have never known of the American Scoter being taken in this 

 way, although I have tried it many times, for they go on their 

 way as if nothing had happened. 



There may be miles of water with many shoals and nothing 

 to mark the position of their accustomed feeding grounds, and 

 though the birds have drifted all night with the current, yet 

 however dense the fog they will always fly direct to the partic- 

 ular shoal on which they have been in the habit of feeding, 

 notwithstanding the fact that there are plenty of other shoals 



