223 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



many a squabble, precisely similar in character 

 to those which are every day witnessed among 

 our tame fowl, on the pond and in the barn- 

 yard. 



All these ducks stool readily, except the wid- 

 geon, which is apt to soar and make off as it 

 nears the battery, often giving the alarm, in this 

 way, to whole flocks of other ducks, which are 

 on the fly for the decoys. On this account it is 

 rather in bad odor with the shooters of Havre 

 de Grace, who, while watching the box from the 

 scow, rarely fail to exult in the fall of a bald- 

 pate. 



Canvass-backs, however, afford the best sport, 

 as they fly more compactly and dart better than 

 any other species of duck. In eluding their 

 pursuers by diving, milling round and swim- 

 ming under water, when pinioned, they are only 

 equalled by the scaup-duck, and a chase after a 

 crippled "hickory quaker" or a " bay black-head," 

 is sometimes only to be successfully ended by 

 driving them into very shoal water, where they 

 are speedily knocked in the head. 



Late in the fall of the year 18 , while par- 

 tridge shooting in the neighborhood of the Chesa- 

 peake, we received an invitation from Mr. J. W. 

 McCullough, of Port Deposit, to accompany him 



