60 The Water-fowl Family 



ICE-HOLE SHOOTING 



In various parts of our country, with the first 

 approach of winter, many wild fowl are loath to 

 leave, and remain until the last open water freezes. 

 Throughout the West the larger lakes and rivers 

 afford shooting from ice-holes, — along the coasts, 

 the bays, and harbors. There is a degree of dis- 

 comfort, not to say actual danger, about this 

 shooting that does not commend itself to the 

 sportsmen as highly as other methods. Then 

 too, birds, if long limited to these small areas of 

 open water, grow thin and poor ; but a duck is a 

 duck, and probably this fact has not deterred 

 many gunners from taking advantage of any 

 helplessness. While all varieties of ducks fre- 

 quent open water under these circumstances, the 

 species most commonly associated with freezing 

 weather are the golden-eye ; they thrive and 

 keep in good condition to the last. On an occa- 

 sion I saw a single golden-eye in a small ice- 

 hole, under one of the bridges near New Haven ; 

 the bird flew as we drove over, but at once 

 returned, a fact that goes to show the tenacity of 

 birds for these places when forced by circum- 

 stances. 



My own experience in ice shooting has been 

 limited. In the severe winter of four years ago the 

 harbors all along Long Island Sound were frozen 



