52 The IVater-fowl Family 



stool and ducks, quarters in the punt are crowded. 

 The gunner realizes, in addition to the delights of 

 that day, a lame shoulder and an appetite. Sixty- 

 seven birds, among them twenty-six brace of black 

 duck, are hung in the duck-house. 



In the past season red-head have figured largely 

 in the bags made at Long Point, but the marsh 

 ducks generally predominate, and black ducks 

 head the list. In one of the larger ponds canvas- 

 back are occasional visitors. 



CANVAS-BACK SHOOTING IN ONTARIO 



In the past few years, in certain parts of the 

 Great Lake region, canvas-back have appeared in 

 considerable numbers, and it is an interesting fact 

 that a marked increase of these ducks was noted 

 in some localities at a time coincident with their 

 disappearance from the Chesapeake. In some of 

 the shallow bays of Lake Erie wild celery is 

 found, and it is here the birds are most abundant. 

 The first flocks of canvas-back appear early in 

 October, and keep pretty much to the open water, 

 spending most of their time in resting and feed- 

 ing, occasionally moving in large bodies. By the 

 end of the month all the flocks have congregated, 

 and the canvas-back season is at its height. Bat- 

 tery shooting is not legal here, and the gunning 

 is done almost entirely from skags. A skag is a 

 low duck-boat, strongly built, decked over in such 



