Duck-shooting 1 29 



Yukon. Winters in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, for- 

 merly abundantly, now rarely ; occasionally south to Florida and 

 straggling to the West Indies ; and from western New York 

 rarely, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Illinois, Colorado, Arizona, and 

 British Columbia, south to California, Mexico, Central America, 

 and the Gulf Coast. In the migrations occurs on the Atlantic 

 Coast rarely, north to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and in 

 Bermuda. 



The story of this duck on our eastern coast is 

 one of days that are past. In the halcyon times 

 when Chesapeake Bay and the canvas-back duck 

 were words inseparable, the winter home was here. 

 The large flocks arrived about the middle of No- 

 vember, tired and thin from their long flight; they 

 gathered on the bars offshore, rising only when 

 disturbed, feeding on the beds of tape-grass or 

 vallisneria (not the wild celery, as popularly sup- 

 posed). On this diet the flesh attained its highest 

 degree of excellence. In December the birds had 

 fattened and become more active, passing up and 

 down the bay to and from their feeding-grounds 

 in morning and evening flights, keeping well off- 

 shore in fair weather, leading over the points 

 when driven by wind or storm. The more famous 

 locations were the Narrows, Taylor's and Abbey 

 islands on the western shore, Miller's Island, and 

 Carroll's Island. When driven from the bay by 

 constant shooting, they resorted to the larger 

 rivers. Blinds and decoys in all possible loca- 

 tions, batteries and sink-boxes offshore, awaited 



