SEA DUCKS. 21 J 



it was from seeing the way in which the fox at times secures his 

 prey that men were induced to adopt the plan spoken of, for that 

 cunning animal in the autumn resorts to a similar ruse to capture 

 young ducks. He then promenades near to the water's edge, 

 sometimes vaulting high in the air, and at others crawling on his 

 belly, his brush meanwhile trailing along the ground. These ma- 

 noeuvres of his so excite the curiosity and tickle the fancy of the 

 ducklings that they gradually swim towards him, occasionally so 

 near, it is said, as actually to seize hold of his tail with their bills ; 

 but they usually pay dear for their temerity, for the wily fellow 

 seizes his opportunity, and pounces on one or other of them. " To 

 the devices of the fox," says a Swedish gentleman, "I have been 

 an eye witness, and it was only last autumn that my bailiff shot 

 one of these animals in the very act of beguiling young ducks in 

 the manner described." On the Chesapeake these birds are also 

 shot in great numbers, from points or bars, near or over which 

 they fly. 



On the Potomac, when it freezes over. Canvas-backs are shot 

 in considerable numbers on the open places in the river, spots 

 where from one cause or another, ice has not formed. The de- 

 coys are set out in the open water, and the sportsman making a 

 bed of blankets with a pillow of hay, and covering himself with a 

 white sheet, waits for the birds. The ducks do not notice him, for 

 he looks like a hummock of ice. The pillow raises the head so 

 that the gunner is not obliged to make any movement until he 

 rises to shoot. Large bags are often made in this way and the 

 sport may continue all day, as the ducks fly from one open place 

 to another almost continually. 



The legitimate sportsmen upon the Potomac are much annoyed 

 by pot hunters who, with swivel guns and from batteries, slaughter 

 great numbers of ducks when they first arrive and render the sur^- 

 vivors so wild that it is quite impossible to get near enough to 

 shoot at them with a shoulder gun. Since the laws in reference 

 to these engines of destruction have been so rigidly enforced on 

 the Chesapeake, many of the market hunters from there have come 

 to the Potomac, where they maTce great havoc among the birdij. 



Although the battery or sink boat has been already referred to, 

 a more detailed description may not be out of place here. The 



10 



