THE BLACK DUCK 281 
to him. When untroubled he will stay for days 
in a quarter where food is plenty. 
Many are killed during the winter nights by 
gunners who approach them in their deadly 
‘‘floats’’ and shoot them as they huddle on the 
edges of the ice or feed along the muddy banks 
of the channels. Some gunners go to the air- 
holes in the ice with a number of half-tamed 
birds, the wounded and crippled survivors of 
former gunning trips cured and half domesti- 
cated to serve as decoys. Securely fastening 
these to a long line and anchoring them at a 
proper distance, the gunner sits silent and mo- 
tionless in his float until the whizzing and rush- 
ing of wings and the splashing of the water tell 
of the arrival of expected visitors, and he points 
his barrels by the light of the moon if there hap- 
pens to be a moon on duty that night. Itisa 
cold kind of business—this sitting still in your 
boat on a winter’s night with not even the priv- 
ilege of walking about to keep alive. 
The Black Duck is wary and cautious in the 
extreme, few of his tribe being so difficult of 
approach, scenting danger while it is yet afar 
off and waiting not a second warning, but ris- 
ing into the air with a mighty leap as though 
