42:2 DUCK SHOOTING. 



the first time — they try to check themselves; but it is 

 too late to turn, and with swift and steady flight, at 

 wonderful speed, they fly on, passing between two of 

 the boats, and twenty or thirty feet above the water. 

 In each boat a man springs to his knees, follows the 

 swift course of the birds for an instant with his gun, 

 there are four reports, and three of the birds turn heels 

 over head, falling to the water, while two more slant 

 downward, striking the surface with heavy splashes, 

 one near and one much further off. The two gunners 

 draw their buoys to the side of the boats, unsnap the 

 painters, and, shipping their oars, row off to recover 

 the dead, and when this is done, return to their place in 

 the line. Many of the birds, as they strike the water, 

 dive at once, and coming up a long way off, repeat their 

 diving, swimming so fast and so far that they are not 

 pursued. Others which dive are not seen to come up 

 at all ; these are believed to go to the bottom, and there 

 to cling to the weeds until dead. Others, still, perhaps 

 too hard hit even to dive, skulk off, with the body 

 completely submerged, and nothing but the bill ex- 

 posed above the water. If there is a little ripple, or 

 still more if there is a sea on, it is hardly visible. 



The first shooting of the season is almost entirely 

 at coots (Oidemia), which are the earliest of the sea 

 ducks to arrive off the coast. Somewhat later, as the 

 weather grows colder, the old-squaws, or long-tailed 

 ducks, make their appearance, and their coming adds 

 interest to the sport. They fly with great swiftness, 

 and very irregularly, and their long tails and dodging 



