1 84 . WILD-FOWL 



is here no bag limit, the shooting has not been suffi- 

 cient to cause the red-heads so nearly to disappear. 

 The failure of their food, its destruction by the carp, 

 and the excessive shooting by the market gunners at 

 St. Clair, on the north, and in the Southern States dur- 

 ing the winter, have no doubt combined to bring about 

 the unfortunate result shown by the club register. 

 Singular it is, if true, as I am informed, that the clubs 

 of the Lake Erie region are opposed to laws prohibit- 

 ing spring shooting. Many ducks would no doubt 

 remain to breed on their preserves were there no guns 

 fired at them in the spring. 



The shooting of the red-heads is similar to that of 

 the canvas-backs. They come to the same decoys and 

 present about the same marks. I have shot them 

 from a sail-boat on Long Island Sound, and have shot 

 them in the West, where they were sufficiently abun- 

 dant to need no decoys. I once killed quite a num- 

 ber of these birds shooting on a pass between two 

 lakes, in North Dakota, and their flight was extremely 

 rapid. They passed quite close to my ambush, how- 

 ever, since it was well placed at a point where I 

 observed these ducks and many others passing in both 

 directions. Thousands which had been driven out at 

 our approach, were returning to one of the lakes, and 

 although I had no decoys and had been shooting too 

 much at the grouse to do well with the swifter marks, 

 I had no trouble in making a good bag. The red- 

 heads, like the canvas-backs, are great divers, and it is 

 difficult on that account to secure wounded birds when 

 they fall in the water. When a bird falls with his 

 head up, or is evidently only wounded, it is a matter 



