and the Maritime Provinces. 135 



on a long line, while the guide and I paddled rather slowly. He was soon 

 rewarded by the strike of a heavy fish which, after a few minutes' struggle , 

 came to the landing net. It proved to be another " laker " of about four 

 pounds' weight. 



" Him another tuladi," said Francois, as he killed the trout and stowed it 

 away in the stern of the canoe. "Mic-Macs saltum down for winter," he added. 



On our arrival at the mouth of the brook we found a pair of black or 

 dusky ducks, with a family of eight young. Quacking like the mallard, the 

 old birds led their progeny quickly away from our unwelcome vicinage, 

 napping and swimming until they disappeared up the brook. 



The dusky duck, Anas obscura, is the most abundant of all our eastern 

 fresh-water ducks. It breeds in all the New England States, but is found 

 more abundantly in the northern sections of them in the breeding season. 

 The country around Lake Umbagog, Maine, and the long stretch of meadows 

 on the Magalloway river seem to be favorite nesting places for them. In 

 the swamps and meadows on Big lake, the lower one of the Schoodic lakes, 

 these birds used to breed in great numbers, but they were driven away by 

 the numerous large pickerel which seized and devoured their young. 

 They breed also in the swamps of Nova Scotia, where I have repeatedly 

 seen families of them feeding in the near vicinity of farmhouses. I once 

 stopped to watch a pair of old birds and their young in a ditch beside the 

 road, believing them to be domestic ducks. They proved to be the wild 

 birds, for there was not a house within a mile, but they were almost as 

 tame as domestic water-fowl. 



While localities in or near meadows, near ponds and lakes, are favorite 

 nesting places, they often hatch their young in a swamp in which a small 

 brook is the only water for miles around. 



Early in September the dusky duck gathers in flocks of fifteen or 

 twenty. It now becomes one of the most shy and wary of birds. 



The following, from the Birds of New England, gives an idea of the 

 manner in which they are chiefly obtained by sportsmen : 



" It is now so difficult of approach, that the experienced gunner sel- 

 dom attempts to secure it by stalking it. The sportsman, knowing the 

 localities most frequented by these flocks, — generally meadows, in which 

 streams or small ponds of water are abundant, — builds a bower (or stand) 

 near the water, six or eight feet square, and five or six high, of the limbs 

 of pines or other dense foliaged trees, in which he secretes himself at day- 

 break, armed with one or two heavy double-barrelled guns, and provided 

 with three or four tame decoy ducks. One of these he anchors or moors 

 out in the water, half a gunshot from the stand. The decoy, soon becom- 

 ing lonesome, begins to call, when, if there are any wild ducks in the 

 neighborhood, they answer the note, and soon fly to meet the caller. 



