4lS DUCk SHOOTING. 



SEA SHOOTING ON THE ATLANTIC. 



Along the coasts of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode 

 Island and Connecticut great hordes of wildfowl gath- 

 er each winter, driven from the North by the ice which 

 blocks their feeding grounds. For the most part these 

 birds are sea-ducks of different sorts, and feeding, as 

 they do, largely on the shell-fish which they bring up 

 from the bottom, they are not highly esteemed as food. 

 Nevertheless, the dwellers along the seashore eat them 

 and think them good, although in taste and appearance 

 they are very different from the birds that live chiefly 

 on the fresh water, whose food is largely vegetable. 



These birds are chiefly the three scoters — the black 

 scoter, the white-winged scoter and the skunk-head — 

 old-squaw, or long-tailed duck, eider ducks, in varying 

 numbers, with a few whistlers or golden-eyes, and oc- 

 casionally a few harlequins. When not feeding, these 

 birds commonly rest well out to sea, but in the morning 

 and at the approach of evening they usually fly into the 

 bays, where the water is more shallow, to feed on the 

 clams and winkles, which they procure by diving. 



The large beds of ducks break up at dawn, and the 

 birds fly by little companies, continuing to move about 

 until ten or eleven o'clock, when they settle down and 

 do not fly again until evening. At many points along 

 this coast, ducking in line is practiced, a form of sport 

 not known elsewhere, we believe. In this, besides his 

 gun and ammunition, the gunner requires a flat-bot- 



