y4o Canvas -Back and Terrapin. 



duty. Of how few bipeds can we say as much ? When ducks are passing over, 

 he takes his stand with his master, his fore-feet resting on the blind, and, still as a 

 mouse, he watches not the gun, nor anything but the game as it approaches; and 

 listening to hear the shot strike, the moment a duck is seen to falter in its flight 

 as it falls, the good dog plunges in the river like a ball from a cannon, and, from 

 whatever distance, brings the duck and lays it at the feet of his master. He has 

 been known to bring out as many as three at a time, and has the sagacity, when 

 some are only crippled and in danger of being lost, to give to them first a finish- 

 ing grip, leaving such as are stone dead to be secured at leisure. When a duck 

 dives to escape him, it is curious to see how he will stand erect, head and shoulders 

 out of water, watching in all directions for its re-appearance. Such are the offices, 

 such the achievements, of the high-bred water-dog of the Chesapeake Bay and the 

 noble estuaries that commingle in its bosom. 



"Three types of the Chesapeake Bay dog are now recognized: (i.) The Otter 

 breed: color, tawny sedge; hair, very short. (2.) The Red Winchester: hair, long. 

 (3.) The red-brown, with a curly coat. A white spot on the breast is not unusual 

 in the three types. 



"Measurements: From fore-toe to top of back, 25 inches; from tip of nose to 

 base of head, 10 inches; girth of body back of fore-leg, 33 inches; breast, 9 inches; 

 around fore-feet, 6 inches; around fore-arm below shoulder, 7 inches; between eyes, 

 2^ inches; length of ears, 5 inches; from base of head to root of tail, 35 inches; 

 tail, 16 inches; around the muzzle below eyes, 10 inches." 



By nine o'clock we had ninety-six fine ducks in our blind, and a 

 very handsome and imposing-looking lot of game, indeed, they 

 made. After that hour the ducks ceased "trading," as flying from 

 one point to another is termed, and began to form great beds of 

 countless thousands out in the open water. As far as the eye could 

 reach, the middle of the stream and the broad water of the river 

 below were covered with them. There were literally acres of ducks 

 of all kinds; but "trading" was at an end, and shooting, except of 

 an occasional single or stray duck, was temporarily suspended. 



" Well," said B., " I suppose, now, you'd like to see some duck- 

 tolling?" 



" I'd like to be told," I replied, " what tolling is." 



B. declined to explain, and said the only way to find out was to 

 see it for oneself. It was determined to go over to Cold Spring, 

 and as a walk of half a mile across one of these peninsulas will take 

 one from one estuary to another, we shouldered our guns and were 

 soon in sight of it. It was just such another sheet of water as we 

 had left, with woods growing thickly down to a sandy shore. We 



