46 The Water-fowl Family 



bedded far out in the bay, where they will rest in 

 peace until the next combination of an east wind 

 with an ebb tide. Now low water leaves some of 

 the stool almost dry on the bar; it is possible to 

 wade out and pick them up. As the dink is 

 headed for home, the bow is piled high with 

 brant, some forty odd. 



DUCK-SHOOTING AT LONG POINT 



Among the most famous places for wild ducks 

 at the present time are the marshes on the north 

 shore of Lake Erie, owned by the Long Point 

 Company. Long Point consists of a peninsula 

 some twenty miles in length and from four to six 

 miles wide, making a shallow bay along the lake. 

 This narrow strip is almost a continuous marsh, 

 broken up everywhere by ponds, its edges bor- 

 dered in places with woods. Through the summer 

 the marsh is the breeding-ground of many black 

 duck and teal. Mallards and shovellers nest there 

 more sparingly. It is a satisfactory fact that since 

 spring shooting has been abolished the number of 

 ducks here has increased surprisingly through the 

 summer. Early in the fall, blue-winged teal and 

 black duck are most in evidence ; but there are 

 also wood-duck in some quantity, although here, 

 as elsewhere, the wood-duck has disappeared 

 markedly in the past few years. With the first 

 cold days of October, the summer residents begin 



