278 PBAIBIE AND FOBEST. 



beauty wheeling, and wheeling in gradually contracting 

 flights, towards the well-guarded decoys, only to leave 

 them in disgust before the impatient gunner was rewarded 

 with a shot. Moreover, this species seems to be regarded 

 by all others of its family as a most reliable advance-guard 

 in whom to place confidence, for often have I seen both 

 red-heads and canvas-backs retire precipitously from the 

 blind to which they were coming direct, when a black duck 

 has been observed giving a wide birth to the decoys. 



Mr. Copper and Mr. Macready, both commanding vessels 

 in the Maryland police force, than whom no better sports- 

 men and duck-shots are to be found, have often assured 

 me that the black duck was the most difficult of all the 

 waterfowl on the Chesapeake to kill ; this I feel assured of 

 from another circumstance than their wariness, for being 

 very large, more so than mallard, and very power- 

 fully built, they can carry away an enormous deal of 

 shot. 



I can well remember a circumstance illustrative of this. 

 There was a marsh close to my head-quarters last year. 

 To wile away the afternoon, I took my gun, and, with my 

 landlord, started to explore some open water reported 

 about a mile from home ; for the late frosts had been 

 severe, and all places that did not possess a rapid current 

 were ice-locked. 



The early portion of our tramp had been extremely 

 unprofitable, but as we were crossing a narrow creek on the 

 most unstable of bridges, temporarily constructed of fence 

 rails purloined from the arable land of a neighbouring 

 farmer, a brace of black duck flushed within twenty yards 



