DUCK SHOOTING 273 



and Islandica are the chief birds that afford sport 

 or are sought after for food. 



For golden eye and eider, blinds of ice are 

 built near their resorts, mostly at the end of some 

 point where the strong currents keep the water 

 tree of ice. In this blind, all draped in 

 white, the hunter stations himself, and at the 

 first apperance of daylight the birds begin to come 

 in. If the shooter is there for sport he will take 

 them on the wing, but if food is the object he will 

 wait for a pot shot and get ten, fifteen, or more. 

 I have heard of fifty-two having been killed in a 

 single shot. Years ago I killed myself twenty-six 

 eider in one shot with a flint lock 24 bore. A can- 

 oe painted white is kept near at hand to retrieve 

 the dead birds and finish the cripples. 



The long-tailed duck seldom keeps near shore r 

 seeking the open spaces of water among the ice, 

 and never stopping long in any one place. There 

 are immense flocks of them, so that at almost any 

 time of the day, there are some on the wing. Sit- 

 ting or flying they keep up an unceasing call. 

 They are the noisiest duck that I know of. They 

 are very fast birds on the wing and carry an aw- 

 ful lot of shot. If not killed stone dead, it is sel- 

 dom that they can be recovered. For winter 

 shooting, Indians and most of the residents use 

 double B Shot. It is the standard shot for almost 

 everything. For my part I prefer No. 4. Shoot- 



