142 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



peake, to each of which particular places these Ducks 

 resort; while in waters, unprovided with this nutritive 

 plant they are altogether unkno^vn. 



'' On the arrival of these birds in the Susquehanna, 

 near Havre de Grace, they are generally lean, but such is 

 the abundance of their favorite food, that towards the 

 middle of E'ovember they are in pretty good order. They 

 are excellent divers, and swim with great speed and agility. 

 They sometimes assemble in such multitudes as to cover 

 several acres of the river, and wdien they rise suddenly, 

 produce a noise resembling thunder. They float about the 

 shoals, diving and tearing up the grass by the roots, which 

 is the only part they eat. They are extremely shy, and 

 can rarely be approached, unless by strategem. When 

 wounded in the wing, they dive to such prodigious dis- 

 tances, and with such rapidity, continuing it so persever- 

 ingly, and with such cunning and active vigor, as almost 

 always to render the pursuit hopeless. From the great 

 demand for these Ducks, and the high price they uniformly 

 bring in market, various modes are practiced to get w^ithin 

 fiTinshot of them. The most successful wav is said to be 

 decoying them to the shore by means of a dog, while the 

 gTinner lies concealed in a proper situation. The dog, 

 if properly trained, plays back and forwards along the 

 margin of the water, and the Ducks, observing his man- 

 oeuvres, enticed perhaps by curiosity, gradually approach 

 the shore, until they are sometimes within twenty or thirty 

 yards of the spot where the gunner lies concealed, and 

 from which he rakes them, first on the water, and then as 

 they rise. This method is called ' tolling them in.' If 

 the Ducks seem difficult to decoy, any glaring object, such 



