130 The Water-fowl Family 



them. They were drifted on when gathered on 

 their feeding-grounds. At night bedded on the 

 resting-places, the rafts of ducks were shot into 

 by means of large-bore guns or cannon as they 

 huddled together in front of the gunner's light. 

 Occasionally they were taken in gill nets offshore. 

 Eagerly sought for and greedily hunted, killed by 

 every device known to man, this bird, the noblest 

 of all our water-fowl, has been driven from its old 

 haunts; and the Chesapeake Bay knows it no 

 more. 



The few flocks occasionally seen in the vicinity 

 now bear sad testimony of the wanton destruction 

 of . the past. Farther south, along the coast, 

 canvas-back still winter in some numbers, but 

 are seldom killed in any quantity, and then only 

 in heavy weather, or when ice holes afford a 

 limited feeding-ground. A few are found on the 

 James River. In 1893, when scarcely a canvas- 

 back was killed on the Chesapeake, there were 

 large flocks on the James. They often bedded 

 in the coves across the river from Westover, in 

 fair weather keeping well out in the centre, flying 

 up and down morning and evening. In a heavy 

 snowstorm on Christmas day we shot them from 

 brush blinds on the south shore. There are few 

 more stirring sights than flocks of canvas-back 

 leading up within range of the blind, flying in 

 wedge-shaped lines high in air; as they come 



