550 The Water-fowl Family 



hundred strong, three hundred yards or more 

 beyond the decoys, making a grand display of 

 snowy underwear, in contrast with their jetty 

 robes, as they passed. But vainly we looked for 

 them to turn ; a suspicious " waa ook " carne from 

 a few throats, and on went the line in tremulous 

 black and white until it faded in the glimmer on 

 the face of the water far down the bay. 



But that was nothing, for scores and even hun- 

 dreds of such flocks were sure to follow them in 

 the next two hours, and not long did we have to 

 wait after the turn of the tide before another line 

 of dark dots was strung along the western sky. 

 And soon there was a soft ssssss, sss, of sailing 

 feathers, but just a little too far to justify raising 

 a head or moving a gun. But the silence among 

 the black throats showed that they had taken no 

 alarm, and it was better to give them a chance to 

 swing, for they seldom alight at the first approach 

 to the decoys. Two hundred yards past they 

 sailed with occasional beat of wing, when the 

 line turned and back they came with every sail 

 set and the air singing beneath them as they rode 

 down an invisible slope directly toward the decoys. 

 Yet, again, they were suspicious and turned for 

 an upward flight, but they had swung in closer to 

 the shore, and quickly we turned the guns upon 

 them. Instantly the long sailing line was turned 

 into a flapping huddle of white and black, with 



