DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 13: 



of ducks, and have a piece of lead on the bottom to keep them 

 upright in the water; they are fastened together in pairs and 

 each pair is provided with a hne and weight for anchor. The 

 decoys and the boat also are made of white cedar which will 

 with care last many years. A boat that I was using this fall 

 was forty years old and was perfectly tight and dry; it was made 

 by the father of the present owner,* 



These boats are also provided with a sail, centerboard and 

 rudder, all of which can be stowed away under the deck with 

 the oars. The cockpit is then covered with a hght hatch or 

 painted canvass and everything kept dry inside no matter to 

 what storms the boat may be exposed. There is also a pair of 

 runners on the bottom covered with brass for running on the ice 

 in winter, and with sail up and a fair wind the boat will attain 

 a high speed, and if it comes to open water goes right on 

 through and out on the ice on the far side. They are cele- 

 brated as rough-weather craft, and a good oarsman can crosa 

 the bay in one of them when it is impossible to handle any 

 other kind of boat. 



In shooting ducks two men usually go out together, each in 

 his own boat. Two men can easily pull one of the boats out 

 on the bank, so one stays by the stools while the other chases 

 the crippled birds in his boat. They put out all their stool 

 ducks in one flock about thirty yards from the point they in- 

 tend to shoot from. The Brant and Black duck decoys are 

 placed up to windward and the Scaup and Bedheads are trailed 

 down the wind from them. They pull their boats into the 

 grass or into holes that have been dug into the favorite points, 

 the racks are removed, and the deck and sides covered with sea 

 trash. Then the gunners lay down with only their heads show- 

 ing, and the whole boat looks Just hke a bunch of sea trash left 

 stranded by the tide. 



* A house near Cape May Court House, N. J., built over a hundred years 

 ago was recently torn down. The shingles with which the sides were covered 

 were made of New Jersey white cedar and, although very much weathered, 

 they were dry and sound, and would have resisted the storms for many years 

 more. Unfortunately, portable sawmills and the greed for profit is rapidly 

 destroying all the white cedar in the New Jersey swamps and depriving the 

 natives of a valuable tree, leaving only mountains of sawdust where the dark, 

 cedar swamps formerly stood. — W. S. 



