BLACK DUCK 
85 
which seems to be a residue thrown out from oil-burning ships. The bursting of oil 
tanks is said to have killed many ducks in a Rhode Island harbor. Wrecked oil- 
tankers have killed sea-birds of all kinds. 
Fortunately the Black Duck is wary enough to escape most of his enemies. It 
would be interesting to know whether the great reduction in fur-bearing animals, 
mink, weasels, and the cat tribe, has made nesting easier for our ducks. Snapping 
turtles are destructive to young Black Ducks, and probably large pike account for a 
few. Audubon mentions gulls as enemies to the young in southern Labrador. 
During certain winters eruptions of Snowy Owls occur in New England, and these 
birds are doubtless destructive to ducks on our salt-marshes. One taken at Block 
Island in November had the feathers of a Black Duck in its stomach (Deane, Auk, 
vol. 23, p. 290, 1906). 
The Duck Hawk is too rare a bird in the east to be of much importance. The 
Goshawk probably takes a few. One was shot in the act of carrying off a live decoy 
in the Topsfield marshes in November (C. W. Townsend, 1920). 
Hunt. Black Ducks are shot in many different ways on our east coast. When they 
are plentiful enough they may be shot over wooden decoys in rough or cold weather, 
but they soon learn to avoid such crude deception. If the decoys are made of rough 
cork, or even of seaweed bunches, or canvas sacks, they will work better, because they 
do not shine. More effective, and almost indispensable in many places, are live call- 
ducks. These are used either at temporary stands or at permanent camps on the 
shores of ponds where a “ team ” of them is kept in front of the blind, day and night, 
during the whole season until the pond freezes. Many of these camps are now elabo- 
rate affairs. Permanent blinds are now also used on the salt-marshes, grassed over 
to resemble a haystack, with shallow ponds dug out of the marsh sod, surrounding 
them. Before night-shooting was prohibited by Federal law in 1913 most of the 
ducks on the salt -meadows were shot by “dusking”; that is, lying in wait on points 
of marsh, or at the mouths of creeks as the ducks flew in from the ocean. This was 
particularly effective in the dead of winter, when much of the feeding ground was 
covered with ice and snow, but it was desperately cold work. Hogsheads sunk in the 
marsh were sometimes used, and bunches of seaweed heaped up on the mud or in 
shallow drains served as decoys. On moonlight nights the shooter often stayed out 
until eight or nine o’clock, but large bags were seldom obtained. Giraud (1844) in 
his Birds of Long Island speaks of two men shooting ninety -nine in a single night at 
South Oyster Bay many years ago. Ten or fifteen was considered a large bag on 
Cape Cod in recent years. 
In Essex County, Massachusetts, a peculiar coffin-shaped float was used, trimmed 
with grass in the autumn, but painted white in winter. In Forest and Stream many 
years ago I described a night hunt in one of these boats. This method required great 
