456 DUCK SHOOTING. 



which, though a Httle larger>and more conspicuous, has 

 the great advantage of being much more roomy. The 

 boat should be painted white, to resemble the ice, and it 

 is common for the gunners to wear white canvas coats 

 and white caps. Ducks are looked for in the likely 

 places among the floating ice, and along feeding 

 grounds close to the shore, if any such are bare. 



When birds are discovered, the oars are shipped, and 

 the boat is sculled or paddled very slowly and cau- 

 tiously up to the ducks. If the work is properly done 

 the birds will not lift their heads to look at the boat. 

 In this work frequent advantage may be taken of the 

 floating cakes of ice, which will cover the approach of 

 the boat, and even if there is no such cover as this, a 

 good sculler may often get within easy gunshot. When 

 this is done, the gunner usually takes one shot at the 

 birds on the water, and another as they rise ; and pos- 

 sibly, if he has a spare gun, and the birds are confused, 

 as they often are, he may even get two more barrels in. 

 Then follows the work of shooting over the cripples, 

 which should be done at once, as it is very easy to lose 

 birds under such conditions. The ducks most com- 

 monly captured in this way are black ducks, whistlers, 

 pintails, and sometimes redheads. 



This sport necessitates much hard work, but the re- 

 ward of a few birds fully compensates the gunner for 

 his efforts. 



Much more destructive than this prowling about in 

 the rivers for small bunches of ducks, is that practiced 

 during the spring migration at the mouths of some of 



