THE CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 225 



return. At these times, though it is a very shy and 

 difficult bird to approach, a great many are killed on 

 the lakes and rivers along their route, though of course 

 nothing to be compared with the numbers killed at the 

 great rendezvous along the Atlantic coast, where they are 

 slaughtered merely as a matter of trade and without any 

 regard to sport. Wilson gives the following description 

 of some of the various modes practised to get within 

 gunshot of them. " The most successful way is said to be 

 decoying them to the shore by means of a dog, while the 

 gunner lies closely concealed in a proper situation. The 

 dog, if properly trained, plays backwards and forwards 

 along the margin of the water, and the ducks, observing 

 his manoeuvres, enticed perhaps by curiosity, gradually 

 approach the shore, until they are sometimes within 

 twenty or thirty yards of the spot where the gunner 

 lies concealed, and from which he rakes them, first on 

 the water and then as they rise. If the ducks seem diffi- 

 cult to decoy, any glaring object, such as a red handker- 

 chief, is fixed round the dog's middle or to his tail, and 

 this rarely fails to attract them. Sometimes, by moon- 

 light, the sportsman directs his skiff towards a flock whose 

 position he has previously ascertained, keeping himself 

 within the projecting shadow of wood, bank, or head- 

 land, and paddles along so silently and imperceptibly as 

 often to approach within fifteen or twenty yards of a 



Q 



