i6o HOW TO STUDY BIRDS 



live decoys. More ducks are shot just at daybreak 

 than at any other time. This involves either sleep- 

 ing in the " bunk-house " or rising very early and go- 

 ing out when it is dark. In the latter case one must 

 enter from the rear and not be seen by ducks which 

 have come in. Evening dusk is also a good time, 

 when the ducks begin to fly about to feed. In the 

 East our common staple at such times is the dusky or 

 " black " duck, with a smattering of wood duck, mal- 

 lard, pintail, blue and green-winged teals, ruddy duck, 

 redhead, and less frequently the shoveller, bald- 

 pate, gadwall, bufflehead, canvasback, or others. In 

 the West and South most of these are much more 

 common. The flocks of Canada geese are due in late 

 October or early November. 



The sea-coast, of course, gives much the best op- 

 portunity to see the migration of water-birds of nearly 

 all kinds. Shore-birds are a delightful group. 

 What is finer than the sight of a flock of sandpipers, 

 chased by the surf, scurrying up the beach, or the 

 band of plovers or curlews feeding on the salt marsh 

 or flat! Unfortunately most of them have been shot 

 off, and the larger kinds are seldom seen. It is a 

 crime against Nature which makes the blood of the 

 bird-lover fairly boil. What right have ignorant, 

 thoughtless people to exterminate our bird-life! If 

 hunting cannot be regulated, better no hunting at all, 

 for there can be none anywhere when the game is 

 all destroyed. The question now is how to save the 



