CHAPTER XII 
WILD DUCKS. 
Wild ducks—Their abundance—Difference between fresh water and salt 
water ducks—Their food—The greenhead, or mallard—General 
characteristics—Breed with the domestic ducks—Habits of hybrids 
—Nests and eggs of the wild species—The flappers—Mode of seek- 
ing food—Large numbers of ducks poisoned annually—How to 
bag the birds—Ice blinds —The haunts of the ducks—Various sys- 
tems for capturing them employed in the West—How to build 
blinds—Sink-boxes—The proper way to anchor wooden decoys— 
When to shoot into a flock—Live decoys—How to set out dead 
birds—Diving decoys—Toling ducks within range—The art of call- 
ing—The best apparatus for calling—The enemies of the wild- 
fowler—Dierence between the shooting in the Eastern and the 
Western States—The best ducking grounds on the Atlantic Coast 
—Professional wild-fowlers at Havre de Grace—The system of 
shooting allowed—Planting decoys—Charges used for duck-guns— 
Price per day demanded fora wild-fowler’s boat—The necessity of a 
written agreement—The best time for shooting—Bushwacking and 
bushwackers—Sportsmen’s clubs and game dinners—A stirring 
spectacle on Chesapeake Bay—Retrievers—General sketches of the 
black mallard; gad wall, or gray duck; pintail, or sprigtail; widgeon; 
shovellers, or spoonbills; cimnamon teal; blue-winged teal; 
green-winged teal ; wood, or summer duck; canyas-back; red- 
head, or porehard ; greater scaup duck ; lesser scaup duck ; ring- 
neck, or tufted duck ; whistler, or golden-eye ; buffle-head ; ruddy 
duck ; harlequin duck ; long-tailed duck ; Steller’s eider duck ; 
spectacled eider; eider, or sea duck ; king eider; white-winged 
coot; surf duck, or sea coot ; gosander, or fish duck; sheldrake, 
or red-breasted merganser; hooded merganser, or saw-bill diver ; 
—Eider down and its peculiarity—Breeding grounds of eiders— 
The young susceptible to domestication—Method of shooting sea 
ducks—Musical ducks and their song—How to cook sea ducks, 
and roast wild fowl. 
It is doubtful if the Anatid@ are as abundant in any 
other part of the world as they are on the North Ameri- 
can Continent, for myriads is the only word that can give 
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