CANVAS-BACK. 285 



but little or no current during calm weather, and therefore is 

 singularly suitable for this kind of sport. The ducks, after being 

 shot, will remain nearly in the same place where they dropped for 

 a considerable time without drifting away; the shooter, therefore, 

 pays no heed to them until he has a large number killed, when he 

 makes a signal to his companion to come and pick them up. 



The amount of ducks killed in this way during the four past 

 seasons is enormous, almost beyond belief. 



We are credibly informed that Mr. W. W. Levy, a ducker well 

 known on the Chesapeake Bay for his skill in this particular sport, 

 has killed as many as one hundred and eighty-seven ducks in one 

 day, and during the seasons of 1846 and 1847 actually bagged 

 seven thousand canvas-backs. 



This system of killing ducks, we believe, was introduced on the 

 Chesapeake Bay by some of the experienced wild-fowl shooters 

 from the vicinity of New York, and who now reap a rich harvest 

 from their hardihood and ingenuity. It is no unusual thing for 

 one of these men to kill as many as fifty couples of canvas-backs 

 in the course of a day; and if the weather prove favorable for 

 this kind of shooting, they have been known to fill a small vessel 

 with ducks in two or three days, which they immediately despatch 

 for the markets of New York, Baltimore, or Philadelphia. These 

 worthies that pursue wild fowl for a living usually make their 

 appearance on the Chesapeake Bay in small yachts, or rather ill- 

 looking sloops, in which they live and stow away their plunder, 

 seldom or never visiting the neighboring shores, knowing full well 

 the reception they most likely would meet with from the hands of 

 those residents who also kill ducks during the winter season to 

 sell, and consequently, from selfish motives alone, are very testy 

 and jealous of those rights which the legislature has endeavored 

 to guarantee to them, but which they from a lack of principle and 

 moral energy are incompetent to enforce by legal measures. 



When the wind is blowing pretty fresh and the ripple high, the 

 ducks are more apt to notice the decoys than on perfectly mild 

 days, and are also more likely to alight among them. When ducks 



