272 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



BLACK DUCK. 



The black duck is of all wild fowl, scarcely even except- 

 ing geese and swans, the wildest and most difficult to in- 

 duce to come within gunshot. All who have shot upon 

 the low sedgy shores of the Chesapeake Bay will confirm 

 this assertion, for well and frequently must he remem- 

 ber to have watched with anxious and impatient eye this 

 dusky beauty wheeling, and wheeling in gradually con- 

 tracting flights, toward the well-guarded decoys, only to 

 leave them in disgust before the impatient gunner was 



BLACK DUCK. 



rewarded with a shot. Moreover, this species seems to 

 be regarded by all others of its family as a most reliable 

 advance-guard in whom to place confidence, for often have 

 I seen both red-heads and canvas-backs retire precipitous- 

 ly from the blind to which they were coming direct, when 

 a black duck has been observed giving a wide berth to the 

 decoys. 



Mr. Copper and Mr. Macready, both commanding vessels 

 in the Maryland police force, than whom no better sports- 

 men and dnck shots are to be found, have often assured me 

 that the black duck was the most difficult of all the water- 

 fowl on the Chesapeake to kill ; this I feel assured of from 

 another circumstance than their wariness, for, being very 



