272 FEATHERED GAME 



sick of running away and so allow the gunner 

 to get within range and end it all. They are 

 not very difficult of approach as compared with 

 the average of our ducks and their big cousins, 

 the Canadas. The smaller flocks are ordin- 

 arily more readily approached than the large 

 ones — a general rule in all such bay gunning. 



We in the north of the Gulf of Maine see 

 few of these migrants at either season, but the 

 brant slayer of Cape Cod is more favored of 

 the gods. Not only has he a hundred birds 

 where we have one, but no weary toil at the 

 ''scull oar" is his, for the Cape is about the last 

 stopping place of their migration and here they 

 plan to rest and ''take in ballast," as the gun- 

 ners name their habit of filling their crops with 

 sand. 



When the flights strike there, usually the lat- 

 ter part of April or the first of May, the wise 

 gunner has his small "shanty" erected near 

 the beach, a sink box set in the sands on a con- 

 venient point near high water mark, and if no 

 natural bar is there he proceeds to build one a 

 fair gunshot away from the sink and just high 

 enough to be above the lift of the tide. Here 

 his live decoys may disport and enjoy them- 



