60 DUCKS SWIMMING UNDER WATER. 



sight and hearing seem then to be marvellous, and the slightest 

 noise sends them off into the water. I have seen them in midday 

 thus sunning and resting themselves, but they are so watchful that 

 it is rare that you can get near enough for a shot at them. They 

 dive at the flash of the gun. I have fired at them at a rather 

 long gun-shot off, and seen them dive while the shot struck the 

 place they occupied a second previous. 



An experienced hunter when on shore will get as near to a 

 flock or single bird as possible without alarming it, wait patiently 

 for it to dive, as it so often does while feeding in apparent safety, 

 when he will run ahead to some shelter nearer the object of his de- 

 sire, repeating the operation until he regards himself sufficiently 

 near, and then, remaining standing with his gun at his shoulder, 

 fire at the unconscious bird when it rises from some long dive, gen- 

 erally killing it. In the fall, when a brood of young ducks is sur- 

 prised it is quite easy to secure a large number, though the old 

 birds generally escape by flight and swimming under the water ; 

 they accomplish this latter act with ease, and often pass long dis- 

 tances before appearing to the surface for fresh air. In the open 

 water, a flock of old birds when approached will separate and swim 

 or fly in different directions, while the young cluster, and thus ex- 

 pose themselves directly to the hunter's fire. The best way to pur- 

 sue both young and old birds is to drive them into some angular 

 indenture of the surrounding islands or land, and then wait for them 

 to appear on the surface of the water after their long dive. The 

 boat stationed too far away for them to swim clear of it, the hunter 

 has every chance for bagging his game. I have noticed that wounded 

 birds do not swim far, about eighteen inches to two feet, below the 

 water ; both bill and head are extended forward in a straight line. 

 The old birds will often swim over a quarter of a mile, if not 

 a full half, in extent, beneath the water without appearing for air. 

 As far as my experience goes the birds are rather tame in the win- 

 ter season, or at least in the extreme late fall ; they huddle together 

 in close bunches of from fifty to several hundred birds, and I am 

 informed that an old hunter once fired into a cluster thus gathered 

 and bagged fifty-nine birds with a single discharge of his gun, a 



