258 NEWFOUNDLAND 



once had splendid brows. So I snapped at him as his back 

 showed up for a moment and missed. After running 30 

 yards farther he turned sideways to recross the stream in 

 which I was myself standing to gain a better view, and so pre- 

 sented for a moment a good broadside. My second shot was 

 quite successful, as it broke the stag's neck, and caused him to 

 fall with a great splash into the brook. 



This was the second best and the last head I secured 

 during the expedition. The brows and bays were all that 

 could be desired — in fact these parts were quite perfect, but 

 the tops were short and somewhat spindly. However, I 

 was glad to have secured three fine specimens in nine heads, 

 and that is as many good heads as any hunter can expect 

 to shoot unless he strikes new ground and meets with a 

 large number of stags in an exceptional year, as I had done 

 in 1903, and did afterwards in 1906. 



In all the lakes lying adjacent to the Gander the dusky 

 mallard [Anas obscurus) was plentiful at this season. This 

 species, similar in habits to the common mallard [Anas boschas) 

 is widely distributed through North America and Canada east 

 of a line formed by the Rocky Mountains. North of a line 

 drawn from the St. Lawrence to the Rockies the "black 

 duck," as it is generally called, is numerous in all the prairie 

 pools and in the lakes and muskegs of the great north as far as 

 the Arctic Ocean. In New England it is known as the dusky 

 duck, in the Southern States as black mallard, in Florida 

 and Mexico as the black English duck, and it is the Mah- 

 kudasheed o{ the Canadian Indians. A dull bird of black and 

 brown it looks at a distance, but when handled the bright 

 orange legs, green bill, and metallic blue and green speculum 

 give it a certain beauty of colour. Males and females are very 

 similar in appearance. They spend the winter in the Southern 

 States, and arrive in pairs in Canada and Newfoundland in 



