THE BLACK DUCK 281 



to him. When untroubled he will stay for days 

 in a quarter where food is plenty. 



Many are killed during the winter nights by 

 gunners who approach them in their deadly 

 *' floats" and shoot them as they huddle on the 

 edges of the ice or feed along the muddy banks 

 of the channels. Some gunners go to the air- 

 holes in the ice with a number of half-tamed 

 birds, the wounded and crippled survivors of 

 former gunning trips cured and half domesti- 

 cated to serve as decoys. Securely fastening 

 these to a long line and anchoring them at a 

 proper distance, the gunner sits silent and mo- 

 tionless in his float until the whizzing and rush- 

 ing of wings and the splashing of the water tell 

 of the arrival of expected visitors, and he points 

 his barrels by the light of the moon if there hap- 

 pens to be a moon on duty that night. It is a 

 cold kind of business — this sitting still in your 

 boat on a winter's night with not even the priv- 

 ilege of walking about to keep alive. 



The Black Duck is wary and cautious in the 

 extreme, few of his tribe being so difficult of 

 approach, scenting danger while it is yet afar 

 off and waiting not a second warning, but ris- 

 ing into the air with a mighty leap as though 



