378 FEATHERED GAME 
slowly ’round and ‘round in a vain effort to get 
under, and a couple more with better success 
diving to the depths and swimming below the 
surface for dear life. There is small hope of 
their capture, yet if they come up within shot 
let them have it, for a stray pellet might stop 
them and we want to leave no poor cripples 
here to suffer and starve. 
Perhaps when you have shot your wounded 
Sea Duck three or four times over you dis- 
cover that he will stand a whole lot of killing, 
and that he will carry off ballast enough to sink 
most birds. He is one of those hard-headed, 
gritty fellows who never admit the fact even 
when they have been killed, and the thick coat 
of down and feathers, backed up by the sturdy 
muscles beneath, makes a very good suit of ar- 
mor over his vitals. Head on, unless a shot 
enters the neck or brain, you may as well snap 
your fingers at him as waste ammunition,— 
that, too, when you are using number one or 
two for shot. Many use as heavy as BB. 
Away in the distance, wherever you look 
there is some scurrying flock of seafowl: 
swift-flying ‘‘old-squaws’’ with a continual 
‘‘gabbling,’’—shelldrakes driving past in rush- 
