The PVater-fowl of the Pacific Coast 531 



strongest breeze as if it were play. And when 

 one comes directly at you, or but a few points off 

 the direct course, the way he can be behind you 

 before you can pull the trigger is one of the 

 funny experiences of duck-shooting. 



All the mergansers or sawbills, fish-ducks, 

 sheldrakes, divers, dippers, etc., seem fully repre- 

 sented here, with some varieties I never saw else- 

 where. So of the scoters or surf ducks, which, 

 in places like the head of the Gulf of California, 

 may be seen by the acre in winter. They all 

 brighten the landscape, but I have not yet found 

 any of the tribe worth cooking and none that 

 would be attractive for one who loves shooting 

 that demands high skill. 



On the whole, what we lose in the black duck 

 and some others, and in the evening and morn- 

 ing flights of old days on the prairie, is more than 

 compensated for on this coast by the length of 

 the season and the greater number of bright, 

 warm days on which we can hunt without dis- 

 comfort, by the absence of howling winds and 

 freezing waters, with less voracious mud but 

 firmer shores and quick transition from one to 

 the other instead of long, slow wading. 



