47 



this is done purposely to elude capture, or whether the bird 

 seizes on the vegetation with a clamp of agony, and then holds 

 fast till death. Mr. George E. Burbank, Sandwich, Massa- 

 chusetts, writes that he and his brother were accustomed to 

 go gunning at Sandwich, on the shore at Town Neck, where 

 there are large clusters of rocks extending out for some dis- 

 tance under water which are covered with barnacles, mussels 

 and other small shellfish, together with various kinds of food 

 suitable for aquatic birds. This was a great feeding ground for 

 Old-Squaws, Red-breasted Mergansers, Surf and other Scoters, 

 loons and grebes. The gunners hiding behind the beach-ridge 

 watched the diving birds. When all were under water, the 

 watchers ran down to the water's edge, and fired when the 

 birds came to the surface. Many of these birds when wounded 

 dived and never came up. The gunners were on the beach. 

 There was no opportunity there for the wounded birds to hide, 

 and they fled to such protection as was offered by the kelp and 

 rockweed beneath the surface. Generally at this point the 

 water is very clear, and Mr. Burbank writes that he has fre- 

 quently seen the birds dead clinging among the kelp and rock- 

 weed, their bills closed about the stems of the kelp, which 

 kept them from rising. If dislodged they came to the surface 

 where they floated like any dead bird. Mr. Howard W. Eaton, 

 Wolf, W T yoming, WTites that at Conneaut Lake he has seen a 

 Ruddy Duck in one instance and a Scaup in another cling to 

 reeds under water until dead. After their death he pushed 

 them free with an oar. Mr. Stanley C. Jewett tells of a Red- 

 breasted Merganser shot at Netarts Bay, Oregon, which dived 

 and never came to the surface. Three hours later, after the 

 tide had ebbed, it was found dead, with its bill clamped to 

 some plant. He did not at the time make note of the kind of 

 vegetation to which the bird had held. 



Mr. Walter H. Miller, La Porte, Indiana, writes as fol- 

 lows : 



I have had considerable experience hunting ducks, and have often 

 pried Bluebills loose from the bottom with the use of an oar; sometimes 

 they were dead and sometimes still alive. They always cling to the 

 weeds with their bills. I have on several occasions taken them off of 

 the weeds in shallow water with my hands. 



