700 THE AMERICAN SCAUP DUCK. 
molested upon entering their feeding grounds, fell easy victims as they en- 
deavored to breast the spit at sunset. Fire hunting was also a favorite method. 
The ducks, at rest upon the water after nightfall, and dazzled by the glare of 
a light at the bow of a canoe, allowed themselves to be clubbed or speared by 
the unseen foe. 
But the ingenious methods of the savage were as child's play in compari- 
son with the pump guns of his more insatiable brothers. Bluebills are still 
common, or so we account them, but we only know a tenth part of their 
former numbers. Indeed, how silly we all are to carry out upon the present 
scale a slaugiter which can have only one result, viz., the practical extermina- 
tion of the wild fowl! We are a spendthrift breed, we Americans, born with 
gold spoons in our mouths, and reckless of our inheritance, the amplest ever 
provided the sons of men, but no more inexhaustible on that account than were 
Photo by the Author 
BLUEBILLS AT BLAINE, 
