CHAPTER XII. 



WILD DUCKS. 



WDd ducks— Their abundance— Di£fcreace between fresh water and salt 

 water ducks— Their food — The greenhead, or malhird — General 

 characteristics — Breed with the domestic ducks — Habits of hybrids 

 — Nests and eggs of the wild species— The flappers — Mode of seek- 

 ing food — Large numbers of ducks poisoned annually — How to 

 bag the birds — Ice blinds —The haunts of the ducks — Various sys- 

 tems for capturing them employed in tbe West — How to build 

 blinds — Siuk-boxes — The proper way to anchor wooden decoys— 

 When to shoot into a Hock — Live decoys— How to set out dead 

 birds — Diving decoys — Toling ducks within range — Thenrt of call- 

 ing — The best apparatus for calling — The enemies of the wild- 

 fowler — Diiference between the shooting in the Eastern and the 

 Western States — The best ducking grounds on the Atlantic Coast 

 —Professional wild-fowlers at Havre de Grace— The system of 

 shooting allowed— Planting decoys — Charges used for duck-guns— 

 Price per day demanded for a wild-fowler's boat — The necessity of a 

 written agreement- The best time for shooting— Bushwacking and 

 biishwackers— Sportsmen's clubs and game dinners— A stn-ring 

 spectacle on Chesapeake Bay— Retrievers— General sketches of the 

 black mallard; gad wall, or gray duck; pintail, or sprigtail; widgeon; 

 shovellers, or spoonbills ; cinnamon teal ; blue-winged teal ; 

 green-winged teal ; wood, or summer duck ; canvas-back ; red-- 

 head, or porchard ; greater scaup duck ; lesser scaup duck ; ring- 

 neck, or tufted duck ; whistler, or golden-eye ; bulHe-head ; ruddy 

 duck ; harlequin duck ; long-tailed duck ; Steller's eider duck ; 

 spectacled eider ; eider, or sea duck ; king eider ; white-winged 

 coot; surf duck, or sea coot ; gosander, or fish duck; sheldrake, 

 or red-breasted merganser ; hooded merganser, or saw-bill diver ; 

 —Eider down and its peculiarity— Breeding grounds of eiders— 

 The young susceptible to domestication— Method of shooting sea 

 ducks— Musical ducks and their song— How to cook sea ducks, 

 and roast wild fowl. 



It is doubtful if the AnatidcB are as abundant in any 

 other part of the world as they are on the North Ameri- 

 can Continent, for myriads is the only word that can give 

 265 13 



