160 HOW TO STUDY BIRDS 



live decoys. More ducks are shot just at daybreak 

 than at any other time. This involves either sleep- 

 ing in the " bunk-house " or rising very early and go- 

 ing out when it is dark. In the latter case one must 

 enter from the rear and not be seen by ducks which 

 have come in. Evening dusk is also a good time, 

 when the ducks begin to fly about to feed. In the 

 East our common staple at such times is the dusky or 

 " black " duck, with a smattering of wood duck, mal- 

 lard, pintail, blue and green-winged teals, ruddy duck, 

 redhead, and less frequently the shoveller, bald- 

 pate, gadwall, bufflehead, canvasback, or others. In 

 the West and South most of these are much more 

 common. The flocks of Canada geese are due in late 

 October or early November. 



The sea-coast, of course, gives much the best op- 

 portunity to see the migration of water-birds of nearly 

 all kinds. Shore-birds are a delightful group. 

 What is finer than the sight of a flock of sandpipers, 

 chased by the surf, scurrying up the beach, or the 

 band of plovers or curlews feeding on the salt marsh 

 or flat ! Unfortunately most of them have been shot 

 off, and the larger kinds are seldom seen. It is a 

 crime against Nature which makes the blood of the 

 bird-lover fairly boil. What right have ignorant, 

 thoughtless people to exterminate our bird-life! If 

 hunting cannot be regulated, better no hunting at all, 

 for there can be none anywhere when the game is 

 all destroyed. The question now is how to save the 



