52 The Water-fowl Family 



stool and ducks, quarters in the punt are crowded. 

 The gunner realizes, in addition to the delights of 

 that day, a lame shoulder and an appetite. Sixty- 

 seven birds, among them twenty-six brace of black 

 duck, are hung in the duck-house. 



In the past season red-head have figured largely 

 in the bags made at Long Point, but the marsh 

 ducks generally predominate, and black ducks 

 head the list. In one of the larger ponds canvas- 

 back are occasional visitors. 



CANVAS-BACK SHOOTING IN ONTARIO 



In the past few years, in certain parts of the 

 Great Lake region, canvas-back have appeared in 

 considerable numbers, and it is an interesting fact 

 that a marked increase of these ducks was noted 

 in some localities at a time coincident with their 

 disappearance from the Chesapeake. In some of 

 the shallow bays of Lake Erie wild celery is 

 -found, and it is here the birds are most abundant. 

 The first flocks of canvas-back appear early in 

 October, and keep pretty much to the open water, 

 spending most of their time in resting and feed- 

 ing, occasionally moving in large bodies. By the 

 end of the month all the flocks have congregated, 

 and the canvas-back season is at its height. Bat- 

 tery shooting is not legal here, and the gunning 

 is done almost entirely from skags. A skag is a 

 low duck-boat, strongly built, decked over in such 



