CANVASS-BACK. 265 



Nothins: is more calculated to drive Ducks from their accus- 

 tomed feeding-grounds than the practice of boating them at 

 night; for, being disturbed during their wonted hours of repose 

 and security by an unforeseen enemy, they soon learn that there 

 is no safety for themselves under any circumstances, and have 

 been known to abandon such places almost entirely after being 

 shot at two or three times in the quiet of the night, when per- 

 haps the whole flock, perfectly unconscious of danger, were 

 wrapped in deep sleep. 



Boating Ducks on their feeding-grounds, even with small 

 guns during the daytime, will soon drive them from their 

 accustomed haunts, and force them to find other spots at a 

 distance where they can remain undisturbed. All modes of 

 boating Ducks are condemned by the Sportsmen visiting these 

 parts, as well as by those who reside in the vicinity of the bay 

 shore. 



NETTING DUCKS. 



A very ingenious way of taking Canvass-Ba'cks was resorted 

 to a few years since by a gentleman living on the bay, and 

 which certainly, for its novelty, requires some notice on our 

 part. This plan consisted in sinking gilling-nets a short dis- 

 tance below the surface of the watei', so that the Ducks in 

 diving would get their heads and wings entangled in its meshes, 

 and thus miserably perish by drowning. 



Great numbers were secured by this method at first; but the 

 Canvass-Backs soon entirely forsook the shoals where these 

 nets were placed, and did not return to theni again during the 

 same season. But what brought this method more particularly 

 into disrepute, even among Pot Hunters, was the circumstance 

 of the Ducks secured in this way being so far inferior to those 

 that were shot, owing to their being drowned and remaining so 

 long a time under the water, as the placing of the nets occupied 

 so much time and labor that it would not pay to examine them 

 oftener than once in twenty-four or forty-eight hours; and many 

 of the Ducks consequently were under the water during a 

 larger portion of this time. The flesh, under these disadvan- 

 tages, became watery and insipid, and the Ducks, moreover, 

 were very hard to keep, except in verj^ cold weather, on account 

 of their bodies absorbing so much water. The whole system 



